Durham is truly becoming an “international community”. Durham developed international connections shortly after being organized as a city in 1869. The Durham based American Tobacco Company has its origins about that time with the tobacco company of Washington Duke, which became a global company in the early 1900s with cigarette brands known around the world. Durham received major shipments of tobacco from Kavala, Greece for over 100 years. In recent years, Durham’s growing international population now includes people from at least 40 different countries. Here is a list of some Durham organizations that attest to this increasing globalization of Durham: --- Latino Community Credit Union is based in Durham and serves customers representing over 80 countries across NC ---- Non-profits, such as El Centro and El Futuro serve the growing Latino population. -- - Our universities and colleges, Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Durham Technical Community College, have international faculty and diverse student populations with students from around the world. The Center for the Global Learner at Durham Technical Community College provides English classes for students representing over 90 language groups. -- - Durham is the home of the American Dance Festival, bringing dancers and choreographers from around the world.. -- - The Durham Bulls baseball team has had over 120 international players since it became an AAA level team in 1995. Their baseball park proudly displays a large brick mural donated by our Sister City, Toyama, Japan. -- - And Durham has over 100 international restaurants and other businesses representing at least 20 countries. - The internationally recognized Research Triangle Park (RTP) is adjacent to Durham, and partners with the three major research universities in our area. RTP is the largest research park in the United States and is a premier global innovation center, with science and technology firms, government agencies, academic institutions, startups and nonprofits. RTP is now expanding by building Hub RTP, which is featured in one of the videos listed below.