Spaulding is the son of Asa T. Spaulding Sr., former president of
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, and
Elna Spaulding,
Durham County's first female
county commissioner. His grandfather,
George Ruffin Bridgeforth, was a former
Tuskegee Institute administrator and Alabama farmer. Spaulding is a graduate of
Howard University (cum laude, 1967), where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government with minors in Business Administration and Sociology. He received his Juris Doctor from the
University of North Carolina School of Law in 1970. He represented notable clients and served on the O. J. Simpson dream team. He went on to represent many national developers of major residential and commercial developments in Durham, North Carolina. ==Political career==