In 2007, Craig Watkins made history as the first black district attorney Dallas County had ever elected. Legal observers and supporters applauded Watkins as the first African-American DA in Texas. But was he?

According to John Browning, a trial lawyer with Passman & Jones, and retired Chief Justice Carolyn Wright, William Abram Price was not only the first black attorney in Texas, he was also the first black judge and the first black man elected county attorney.

On April 18, 1876, records show "W. A. Price" was officially sworn in as Fort Bend County district attorney. Less than a year later, Price stepped down in a February 1877 handwritten resignation that Browning and Wright shared from the Fort Bend History Association. They do not know exactly why Price left, but there are numerous recorded incidents they used to construct how his legal career began.

Price, an outspoken Republican, was born in Alabama a free man and educated at Wilberforce, one of the oldest black colleges in America. Texas property records prove that Price was a Matagorda County landowner who found himself in a dispute with a fellow farmer. It was 1871.

Whether Price was falsely accused, we may never know. But, it is not a surprise that an all-white jury found him guilty in the "theft of a cast iron wheel" valued at $25. The shock was the penalty. Price was ordered to pay $1 and the verdict was set aside.

A second trial was held in June 1872 before Judge William Burkhart of the 20th Judicial District. Again, Price was found guilty. A jury of his peers assessed punishment of "five minutes in the County jail." A short time later, the entire case was dismissed.

Between the original charge and second trial, some unknown legality took place because Price was referred to in January 1872 as "Judge Price." There is a citation listing his business at Caney Creek, home of Precinct 2, Justice of the Peace for Matagorda.

Browning and Wright believe Price made such an impression as a learned defendant, he was also persuaded to see himself as more than a gentleman farmer. It was in this unexpected role as a justice that Price was within striking distance of being admitted to the bar. Word quickly spread about an educated black man whose merger of bloodlines included African and Native American ancestry.

Applicants were required to "read the law" in proximity to established attorneys, be of good moral character, have a legal sponsor, and pass examination by senior practitioners. Price's mentor was none other than the judge who presided over his two theft trials: William Burkhart. On Oct. 11, 1873, Price presented a formal application seeking a license to practice law in Texas.

Little is known about his private practice or clients, but we know three attorneys examined Price and approved his application. The black and white press lavished praise on an "influential Republican" and "a man of fine talent." The Galveston Daily News once acknowledged Price as the architect of a canal that was designed to alleviate flooding.

1 / 2William Price signed an oath of office for the Fort Bend County district attorney in 1876.(via John Browning) 2 / 2Historians found various documents showing that William Price was an attorney and elected official.(via John Browning)

By 1875, Price had moved his family from Matagorda to Fort Bend. The Galveston paper informed readers it would be impossible to elect a white Democrat because of the large number of black people in the Matagorda and nearby counties.

Price was elected and took his oath in 1876. Around the same time, racial violence spiked and Price was indicted, which may be part of the reason for his resignation. All indictments were dropped after Price got out of Fort Bend County. Records indicate he went to Louisiana for an even briefer, perhaps more dangerous stay. Price then followed several hundred black families to Kansas, where he was one of the leaders of an enclave known as Little Caney Colony.

According to Browning, Price took on several high-profile cases in Topeka. Among those was a public school desegregation issue that made Price a forerunner of Brown vs. Board of Education.

In 1890, after the highest state court in Kansas established cities with 10,000 or more residents could have separate primary schools by race, Price agreed to represent Jordan Knox and his daughters, Lilly, age 10, and Bertha, 8. The sisters had to walk past the school nearest to their home to get to an all-black school.

On Jan. 16, 1891, in a landmark ruling, the Kansas State Supreme Court agreed with Price that the city of Independence did not have "the power to establish separate schools for the education of white and colored children, and to exclude from schools established for white children all colored children, for no other reason than that they are colored children."

William Abram Price, a Kansas legal maverick, died in 1893. He is rarely mentioned as an elected district or county attorney who first made history in the state of Texas.

Joyce King is a writer in North Texas and the author of several books. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.