Morris Overstreet, jurist and first Black Texan elected to statewide office, dies at 73

Morris Overstreet, a trailblazing jurist and the first Black Texan elected to statewide office, died Sunday in Houston, according to online obituaries. He was 73. “Judge Overstreet was well-loved by the judges and staff who worked with him during his time at the Court,” read a statement from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Overstreet made history when he won a seat on the state’s highest criminal court bench in 1990. He served on the bench until 1998, authoring more than 500 opinions. “It was a privilege to know him, and we will miss him,” the statement continued. Born in 1950 in Amarillo, Overstreet grew up during the height of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, he told his hometown TV station in 2022. He recalled that while in college at Angelo State University, he set out on a mission to “change the world.”

Overstreet graduated from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 1975 and returned to Amarillo to practice law. “His goal was always to make the world better for everyone,” said James Douglas, distinguished professor of law, former dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and friend of Overstreet. “He really cared about people, and he really cared about the legal profession and its ability to make life better for everybody in this country.” In 1986, Overstreet became the first Black person elected to Potter County’s criminal court bench. He then sought a seat on the nine-person, all-white Court of Criminal Appeals. “You look at when he grew up and everything, and no one imagined that someone could get elected who was African American on a statewide basis,” said Kent Hance, a former congressman and chancellor of Texas Tech University System. Hance knew Overstreet for about 50 years, and the pair worked together at the former chancellor’s law office since 2021. “He had certain dreams, and he never strayed from those dreams,” Hance said. Overstreet passed on reelection to the appellate court to vie for Texas attorney general. He lost the 1998 Democratic primary. Now-U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, won the general election for that post.