John Dallas Langston was born on March 22, 1881, near Aurora, North Carolina. Langston was a lawyer by training who embarked on a military career shortly after the United States' entrance into World War I. During the war, Langston first served on the state's eastern district exemption board but was later called up to serve as a special aide to Gov. Thomas W. Bickett in the administration of the selective service act. Before the end of the war, he was transferred to the staff of the provost marshal general in Washington, D.C. He returned to this work during World War II, overseeing large parts of the draft system from Washington, D.C. Langston died in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on July 29, 1963.