BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " DAVID ABNER " WAS AN AMERICAN LEGISLATOR AND FORMER SLAVE : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

             BLACK  SOCIAL  HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                        

David Abner

David Abner, Sr.

David Abner, Sr. (1826–1902) was an American legislator and former slave. He served in the Fourteenth Texas Legislature, where he represented the Fifth District and sat on the Education Committee. He also served as a delegate to the 1875 Texas Constitutional Convention.^[1]

Early life

Abner was born into slavery in Selma, Alabama, in 1826. At the age of 17, in 1843, he was taken to Upshur County, Texas.^[2] After being emancipated during the American Civil War, he moved to Marshall, Texas. In Marshall, he rented a plot of land and a mule from the sister of his original owner. A few years later he was able to buy the farm and become a wealthy farmer.^[2]

Political life

In 1873, Abner was appointed to the executive committee of the first Colored Men's State Convention.^[3] Later, he was elected to the position of treasurer for Harrison County.^[4]In 1874, Abner was elected to sit in the Fifth District of the Texas House of Representatives as a part of the Fourteenth Texas Legislature. There he represented Harrison County and Rusk County.^[5] In the Texas State House, he sat on the education committee.

Halfway through his term in the State House, in August 1875, a convention was called to rewrite the 1869 Texas State Constitution. Abner was one of three delegates who were elected to the convention from the Senatorial District that made up Harison and Rusk Counties.^[6] He was the only Republican at the convention who voted for a clause in the State Constitution that prohibited the state from spending money on encouraging immigration.^a[7]

After the conclusion of his term in the Texas State House of Representatives, he served as the vice president of the 1876 Republican State Convention.^[4]

After politics

In 1881, Abner helped establish Bishop College,^[2] and served as one of its first trustees. In 1884, his son David Abner, Jr. became the first black man to graduate from a Texas college.^[8]

Abner died in 1902 in Marshall, Texas and was buried in a family cemetery.^[2]