Residents push to honor first black Fort Bend sheriff
Effort seeks to rename street for ex-slave elected to county office, state Senate during Reconstruction
When Walter Moses Burton arrived in Fort Bend County in 1860, he was a slave. His owner taught him how to read and write.
The reading and writing lessons would pay off.
In 1869, a few years after the Civil War ended and slaves were freed, Burton was elected the first AfricanAmerican sheriff in Fort
Bend. He went on to serve four terms as a state senator, representing Fort Bend, Waller, Wharton and Austin counties.
During Reconstruction, African Americans for the first time were granted the right to vote and seek public office. Newly freed slaves outnumbered whites in many Southern counties, setting the stage for Burton and other blacks to get elected.
Now Fort Bend, a county of more than 765,000 residents, is one of the most diverse in the country. Voters recently elected the county’s first Asian American county judge and first black district attorney. Still, street names and markers paying homage to shameful episodes of history dot the county. A street in a Missouri City neighborhood, for example, is named after the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Residents are seeking to change who is recognized on one neighborhood’s streets. A group of African American men are seeking to rename two streets in the New Territory subdivision
that now honor plantation owners who took part in the state’s notorious convict leasing system. One of the streets would be named after Burton. The push comes as the county and nation mark Black History Month.
“We didn’t come up with this to fight,” said Paul Matthews, a Sugar Land resident and founder of the Buffalo Soldiers Museum. “We came up with it to educate.”
‘An awesome time’
Walter Moses Burton was brought to Texas by his owner, a North Carolina planter named Thomas Burke Burton, according to Merline Pitre’s book, “Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas.”
Thomas Burton owned a plantation and other large farms in the county. He later sold plots of his land for $900 to Walter Burton, who became one of the richest and most influential blacks in the county.
In his book “The Negro in Texas 1874-1900,” Lawrence Rice writes that 16 counties in Texas, including Fort Bend, had mostly black residents between 1870 and 1900.
Fort Bend County voters likely elected more African Americans than any other county, Rice wrote. They included L.H. McCabe as district clerk and Bill Easton, Jack Cobbin and Tom Taylor to the Commissioners Court (in 1880).
“It’s an awesome time honestly in American history because it’s the first time the country ever legitimately experimented with interracial democracy, government and interracial cooperation,” said Matthew Clavin, a professor of history at the University of Houston. “The successes that you find are short-lived … but that being said, these Reconstruction governments, they fundamentally changed the Constitution.”
Burton was well-respected, but while he served as sheriff, a white deputy was hired to arrest all white persons. It is unknown whether Burton was allowed to arrest whites, Pitre noted.
Burton was elected to the Texas Senate in 1873, though his election was contested by a white Democratic opponent on the grounds that Burton’s name had been listed on the ballot three different ways. The Senate confirmed his election.
When a new state constitution was adopted in 1876, all incumbents had to seek re-election. In a newspaper, someone objected to having a black senator, describing Burton as “a good subject with which to teach an object lesson on the Darwinian theory,” according to Rice’s book.
Many white Southerners grappled with their former slaves rising to positions of power, Clavin pointed out.
“(Burton) still has to work with former Confederates, former
“For years I’ve seen those names and they didn’t mean anything to me.”
Bruce Lemmie, who has joined an effort to change two street names
slave owners because they still have an inordinate amount of power,” said Clavin. “Blacks have an abundance of power for the first time in American history, but their power still in some respects pales in comparison to white power.”
Despite the setbacks, Burton, described by Rice as tall, broadshouldered and with whiskers that turned gray, became a wellrespected senator. He was referred to as the best-dressed man in the Senate, with a peacemaking tone. Senators even gave him a gold-headed ebony cane as a sign of respect.
Burton also was an advocate for education, pushing through a bill that helped establish the Prairie View Normal School, now Prairie View A&M University, according to Pitre.
Reconstruction ended when federal troops were pulled out of Southern states in 1877, to be replaced by a system of racial segregation and violence against blacks.
‘It just ain’t right’
Paul Matthews has lived in New Territory, a subdivision with thousands of residents, since 1996.
But something about the recent discovery of the remains of 95 African Americans on a school construction site in Sugar Land stuck with him. The remains are believed to be of inmates who were contracted out by Texas prison officials to perform cheap labor across the state.
Sugar plantation owners Ed H. Cunningham and L.A. Ellis were part of the convict-leasing system, leasing prisoners from the state from 1878 to 1883. The system targeted African American men.
“Living in the neighborhood and driving down Ellis,” said Matthews, “I thought what my mom used to say, ‘It just ain’t right.’ ”
Matthews set out with other men to change the two street names inside their neighborhood. He thought of Burton as the perfect choice for one of the street names.
During his time in the Texas Legislature, Burton, along with other black lawmakers, spoke out against the convict-leasing system. In the Senate, Burton produced a petition from Fort Bend residents opposed to convicts being employed in the county, according to Pitre.
Matthews wants to change the other street name to honor Garrett Gamble, a Marine and Fort Bend High School graduate who was killed at age 20 while serving in Afghanistan. He filled out a street name change application form, which must receive approval from the owners of three properties on both Ellis and Cunningham streets: a homeowners association, Levee Improvement District No. 7 and a Fort Bend ISD school.
However, the board of the homeowners association said the street name changes should be voted on by the residents. Ultimately, 85 percent of residents opposed the name change, while 15 percent were in favor. Members of the LID board said they would take no action, according to Matthews. The local school did not respond, Matthews said. But he hasn’t given up. Bruce Lemmie, who has lived in New Territory for 25 years, has been helping Matthews. He said he was unfamiliar with Cunningham and Ellis until learning more recently about the convict-leasing system.
“For years I’ve seen those names and they didn’t mean anything to me because I grew up with people named Ellis and Cunningham and they were good people,” said Lemmie. “When I heard the stories about the names, I became very concerned
because it sheds a bad light on the community itself. In my mind, if you’re going to name a street after somebody, it’s somebody who has done something positive.”
After delivering a presentation at the homeowners meeting, he has been stopped by neighbors, many from different cultural backgrounds, saying they want to help.
“This is a very diverse community,” said Matthews. “I don’t believe this is 1920, where people (say) ‘No that’s is not a good idea,’ or ‘If you don’t like it, leave.’ ”
‘A victorious life’
Inside the sprawling Morton cemetery in Richmond, a small black fence surrounds Burton’s gravesite. Brown leaves are strewn on the grass in front of his gray tombstone.
A black historical marker sits in front of Burton’s gravesite, extolling his life story.
Burton has been honored in Fort Bend County. An elementary school in Fresno was named after him. The school’s mascot is named The Burton Sheriff.
After Burton retired from the Senate in 1882, he moved back to Fort Bend and continued working in politics and farming until he died in 1913. Press accounts painted Burton as having the type of success an African American could strive for, writes Rice. His own personal wealth was estimated at $50,000.
“I just thought he was an incredible figure in history,” said Lemmie. “To have someone who could be looked at as a victim, who leads a victorious life.”