After graduation , Burrus became a teacher at a school in the suburbs of Nashville and was quickly promoted to principal . In 1876 he was selected by the Republican State committee as a delegate to the Republican National Convention . At the convention , he initially gave his support to Oliver P. Morton , but finally supported Rutherford B. Hayes on the last ballot , which nominated Hays . That fall he accepted principalship of the Yazoo city school In Yazoo , Mississippi , and in June 1877 , he was offered a position of instructor of mathematics at Fisk University in place of his brother who had just resigned from the position . He taught for two years at Fisk and received an A.M. ( masters ) degree in May 1878 along with Virginia Walker ( now Virginia Walker Broughton ) and America Robinson . In 1879 , he resigned in favor of his younger brother who had just graduated . In 1878 he was elected permanent secretary of the Tennessee Republican State convention and was secretary and treasurer of the State executive committee for the next two years . He was elected to the board of school directors for his district for consecutive three year terms from 1878 to 1884 . The district had two other directors , both white , and 17 teachers , of whom nine were white . He served as chairman of the board and succeeded in equalizing the salaries of the white and black teachers . In 1880 , he spoke at the State Teachers Institute convention in Nashville about unequal funding in schools . This was based on the requirements of the Morrill Act of 1862 which funded land-grant institutions and resulted in new scholarships for black students at Fisk University . He was chosen alternate delegate to the 1880 Republican National Convention . In 1882 he was a candidate for register in Davidson County , Tennessee in August , and in November he was a candidate for the Tennessee House of Representatives . While at Fisk , Burrus began to study law and he was admitted to the bar in 1881 . He also began to work as a correspondent for several newspapers and did some real estate work , forming the Laborer 's Cooperative Building and Endowment Association
1880 Republican National Convention
1880 Republican National Convention
John Houston Burrus