On Feb. 20, 1874, after considering a challenge from his Democratic opponents, the Texas Senate confirmed the election of Walter Moses Burton as the third Freedman elected to the upper legislative chamber and the first since 1869. Burton was brought to Texas as a slave from North Carolina in 1850 at age 21. He belonged to a Fort Bend planter who taught him how to read and write. After the Civil War, Burton was elected as Fort Bend County sheriff — the first black sheriff in the United States. In 1873 Burton won a seat in the Texas Senate, where he served for seven years, from 1874 to 1875 and from 1876 to 1882. There, he championed the education of blacks and passed a bill to establish Prairie View Normal School (now Prairie View A&M University). He was the last black Texas state senator until the election of Barbara Jordan in 1966. . .