Jordan, Barbara Charline

▪ 1997

      U.S. lawyer, politician, and teacher (b. Feb. 21, 1936, Houston, Texas—d. Jan. 17, 1996, Austin, Texas), was the first African-American woman to serve in the Texas legislature, the first Southern black woman elected to Congress, and one of the two first Southern blacks elected to Congress since Reconstruction. During the Watergate impeachment hearings (1974), however, she became best known for the power and authority of her voice when she delivered a stirring proclamation of her faith in the Constitution. Other memorable speeches included the keynote addresses at the Democratic national conventions in 1976 and 1992. Jordan graduated magna cum laude from the all-black Texas Southern University and earned (1959) a law degree from Boston University. She practiced law from her parents' dining room in Houston and became a volunteer during the 1960 presidential campaign, first licking envelopes for Lyndon B. Johnson's bid for the nomination and then directing a voter drive. Jordan made two unsuccessful runs (1962 and 1964) for the Texas House of Representatives before winning (1966) a seat in the Texas Senate, and in 1972 she won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. With the help of her mentor, Johnson, she won a seat on the House Judiciary Committee. She was considered a possible vice presidential candidate for the 1976 election. After three terms in the House, however, she returned to her home state and became a political ethics professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. Jordan chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, and in late 1995 her eloquence was heard once more when she spoke out in Congress in opposition to a proposal to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants.

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