Dewey Slay Hunt was born on August 18, 1899, in Durham County, North Carolina. Hunt was a student at the University of Virginia when the United States entered the First World War. He joined the university's Student Army Training Corps unit in October 1918 and was honorably discharged from the service in December. In the fall of 1919, Hunt joined a national guard unit known as the Durham Machine Gun Company. The following July, Hunt and his unit were sent to Alamance County by order of Gov. Thomas W. Bickett to protect three wrongfully accused Black men from a lynch mob. He died in Durham on December 14, 1970.