Walter Moses Burton - An Unsung Texas Legend
He Exemplified the Spirit of Texas
If there was a ever a man whose life encaptured the spirit of Texas in the way he lived, worked, and interacted with people, it was Walter Moses Burton. What’s amazing is few people have ever even heard of him. Never has another Texan showed more grace, courage, vision, and leadership - He is truly the embodiment of Texas greatness.
Walter Moses Burton was born into slavery in North Carolina in 1829. He belonged to a planter named Thomas Burke Burton who moved to Texas in 1850 where he owned a plantation and several large farms in Fort Bend County. While a slave, Thomas Burton had taught young Moses how to read and write as well as mathematics. At the end of the civil war and after becoming a free man due to the Emancipation Proclamation, Moses took the last name of Burke.
By 1865, Thomas Burton’s finances were absolutely devastated and he was essentially bankrupt by the post war, reconstruction economy of Texas. In desperate need of money, Thomas Burton sold multiple thousand acres of his land to Moses Burton for $1,900, which was a huge sum of money back in 1866. I wasn’t able to find in the record how Moses came up with the money and how he pulled that off, but the acquisition of this property propelled Moses Burton into becoming one of the wealthiest and most influential black men in all of Fort Bend County.
But that’s not the most amazing thing Moses Burton accomplished with regards to his interactions with the Burton family. The most amazing thing is the most profound grace shown by Moses Burton towards the Burton family. Moses maintained a close relationship with them, even going so far as to send $50 a month to Thomas Burton’s wife for the rest of her life after Thomas’ death and then paying for her headstone at the time of her death. He also paid for the wedding of the Burton’s eldest daughter and sent her and new husband $1,000 as a wedding gift. This was the first of many class acts shown by Moses Burton over the course of his life.
By 1869 Fort Bend County had become a hotbed of political turmoil and strife. The fundamental problem is that blacks in the county outnumbered whites significantly. 90% of the county were blacks and only 10% were white and guess what - the newly freed black population now had the right to vote. So beginning in the late 1860’s the blacks coalesced around the Republican party and began to elect blacks into county offices in overwhelming numbers. The majority of the whites in the county were former slave owners and land owners and they were none too keen to see their former slaves now in control of the county government. In 1869 Moses Burton was elected to the highest position in the county - sheriff and tax collector. He was the FIRST black sheriff in the entire United States of America.
Moses Burton was a brilliant man - he knew the impossible position he and the rest of the county officials were in. The vast majority of the wealth of the county was owned by the 10% of the population who owned the majority of the land. He knew the only way to keep the county from being consumed with a revolt and racial violence was to forge relationships with the landowners in the county and demonstrate to them that he would faithfully follow and execute the law. So over the next four years he set out to do just that. He tirelessly worked with local business leaders, landowners, as well as the black community to establish strong ties. He recognized early on that there was a deep seeded history within the county and that the whites in the county would not react favorably to being policed by blacks only so he insured that he had a staff of white constables to handle policing in those areas. He played the long game, knowing it would take decades and maybe even longer to fully integrate the county but he was committed to laying the groundwork to enable that to happen.
By 1873 he had become so well respected by the white population in the county that when he decided to run for the state senate in 1873, the whites vigorously tried to talk him out of it. They wanted him to remain as sheriff! Not because he failed to enforce the law, but because they trusted him and knew him to a be a fair and honorable man.
But he decided to run for the senate anyways and he won, serving four terms where he had a huge impact on state politics. Knowing that education was crucial in a world that was quickly becoming more industrialized, he knew the only way for blacks to have a chance at succeeding was to have better access to education. So he championed and led the effort to establish the funding for Prairie View A&M University which gave blacks their first access to higher education in the state of Texas.
Another amazing thing he was able to accomplish was the abolishment of the state practice of using prison labor for public works projects. Moses Burton recognized early on that while using prison labor for public works projects could save the state money in the short term, he knew the longer term consequences were more severe in that it restricted opportunities for the private labor sector to grow while building a more vibrant economy. So he championed a bill that restricted the state from competing against the private sector for these type of projects which created thousands of new jobs and tax revenue across the state.
Despite being one of the few Republicans in the Senate and despite being the only black, he earned the respect of his colleagues and became a beloved figure up in Austin, truly respected by both sides of the aisle.
Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1883 the senate honored him with an ebony and gold cane to recognize his service to the state of Texas and to the Senate. He retired to run his farm in 1883 and still played a role in local politics over the intervening years. Upon his death on June 4, 1913 he was buried in Morton Cemetery, becoming the first black man buried there.
This was a man who was truly loved by everyone who had ever worked with him regardless of color, political affiliation, or point of view. He was a man that could cross barriers and lord only knows we could use more men like him in today’s world. He had strong beliefs and convictions, but he knew the only way to enact the changes he longed for was through the building of relationships and reaching across to people who vehemently despised him. In the process he was able to build trust with those folks and they grew to love him and trust him. It would be great if we could even find one man or woman close to the character of this guy in today’s world.