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(1936-1996)
BARBARA JORDAN was born in Houston, Texas on February 21, 1936. She believed deeply in the Constitutionand an America made up of diverse people bound by common beliefs. E pluribus unum in unity we are one, was one of her favorite sayings used frequently in her speeches. As an elected official Barbara Jordan accomplished many firsts. She was the first African American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction (1966-72), the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress from the South (1972-78), and the first to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention (the Democratic Convention 1976, and then again in 1992).
She was educated in the public schools of Houston and graduated from Phillis WheatleyHigh School in 1952. After receiving a B.A. in political science and history from Texas Southern University in 1956 she went to attend law school. In 1959, she was admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bars and commenced practice in Houston in 1960. She was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination as state representative in 1962 and 1964. During 1964 and 1965 she served as administrative assistant to Harris County Judge Bill Elliott and as project coordinator of a non-profit corporation to help the unemployed. In 1966 she became the first black person since 1883 to serve in the Texas Senate and was elected in 1968.
In 1972 Jordan defeated Republican Paul Merritt to represent Texas' Eighteenth District in the House of Representatives. She was a member of the Judiciary committee in the Ninety-third Congress and also joined the Committee on Government Operations during the Ninety-fourth and Ninety-fifth Congress.
Shortly after the Ninety-third Congress convened in 1973, it entered a struggle with the Nixon administration over budgetary reform, the troubled economy, Indochina and other issues. Jordan and other freshman representatives met with Speaker Carl Albert and arranged a meeting on the House floor in April to provide newly elected Democrats an opportunity to express their frustration with the difficult relations between Congress and the Executive Branch. Jordan herself praised the House's capacity for self-reform. During the same Congress she attached civil rights amendments to legislation authorizing cities to receive direct Law Enforcement Assistance Administration grants, rather than apply to state governments for the money. Jordan questioned the civil rights record of House Republican leader Gerald Ford when he was nominated for vice president, and joined seven other Judiciary Committee members in voting against his confirmation. During the Judiciary Committee's hearings on the possible impeachment of President Nixon in the summer of 1974, Jordan won national acclaim for her eloquent reaffirmation of faith in the Constitution while voting for all five articles of impeachment. In June 1975 the House voted to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965for ten years. Jordan sponsored legislation extending the Act to include Spanish-heritage, American Indian, Alaskan Natives and Asian American language minorities, while opposing amendments that would have permitted states and localities covered or partially covered by the Act to apply for exemption. She secured passage of the Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975, her bill repealing anti-trust exemptions that kept consumer prices artificially high. Jordan also favored a $25 billion extension of the general federal revenue sharing program and worked to toughen its anti-discrimination provisions. In July 1976, she became the first black and the first woman to deliver a key note address to the Democratic National Convention. The following year she co-sponsored legislation to extend the state ratification deadline for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment from 1979 to 1986. In December 1977, Jordan announced that she would not be a candidate for reelection the following year. In 1979 she became a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. In August 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Ms. Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. Sadly, On January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas, Ms. Jordan gently passed away.
Her riveting Watergate testimony in 1974 inspired American's attention on the strength and foundation of the Constitution of the United States of America. She was an educator at The University of Texas at Austin/LBJ School of Public Affairs (1979-96) and, respectfully as Governor Ann Richards' counsel on ethics. Many also remember well the way she captivated listeners with her powerful voice, oratorical skills, and her ability to clarify complex moral issues of the day.
Throughout her life, Barbara Jordan instilled in Americans everywhere the hope for ethical leadership and racial equality and harmony.
Reference: Black Americans in Congress 1870-1989
Barbara Jordan, Vernon Jordan, and President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Barbara Jordan with President Jimmy Carter
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