Councilwoman Burton earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science at NC A&T State University in Greensboro before attending law school at NC Central University in Durham. She moved to Wilson in 1975. She taught school and was a volunteer at Opportunity Industrialization Commission, a local non-profit group. Councilwoman Burton was the first African-American woman elected to City Council in 1983. She interned with Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New York and for Judge Henry Frye, former Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.