Richard Burke (Alabama politician)

{{short description|Alabama state representative}}

Richard Burke ({{Circa|1807}} - 1870) was a Baptist preacher, an educator, and a state representative in Alabama.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hj3qCQAAQBAJ&dq=holland+thompson+alabama+house+of+representatives&pg=PA58|title=Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities Among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925|first=Paul|last=Harvey|date=November 9, 2000|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807861950|via=Google Books}} He was involved in the Union League. A few nights after a political meeting of African Americans, he was murdered. In Sumter County numerous African American Union League members were shot.{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1151|title = Union League of Alabama}}

Burke was born in Virginia. Burke established a school for African Americans in Sumter County, Alabama and represented the county in the Alabama House of Representatives in 1869 and 1870.

Turner Reavis owned Burke when he was enslaved and testified during hearing in the U.S. Congress investigating activities of the Ku Klux Klan about Burke's activities at the political meeting and about his murder.Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisiana Staye University Press (1996) page 32