Barbara Jordan, 1936-1996

The first black Congresswoman from the Deep South, and the first African-American to be a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, growing up on an unpaved street “in the biggest ghetto in the biggest state”. Jordan graduated with a B.A. from Texas Southern University and later received a law degree from Boston University. After two failed attempts running for the Texas House of Representatives, she won a seat at the 1966 Texas Senate, a first black woman in the position – among 30 white men.
 
In 1972 she was the first black person elected to the National Congress from Texas since Reconstruction era, after the Civil War. She served only six years due to ill health and spent the rest of her life teaching at the University of Texas in Austin.
 
Barbara Jordan was a great orator, and that skill gained her national recognition when addressing the Judiciary Committee in 1974 on national television – she spoke in praise of the constitution when calling on the impeachment of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Her talent for speaking in public made her the first woman and the first black keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention in 1976. While at the same time, her nature as a politician was that of a pragmatic negotiator, which led to criticism from black and feminist activists.
 
In Jordan’s last public service position, she was appointed Head of the Commission on Immigration Reform, for which she had to travel to Mexico and the Dominican Republic in a wheelchair. She died at the age of 59 from pneumonia. In her death, she remains the “first and only” as a black woman buried in the Texas State Cemetery.
 

More Interesting Anecdotes:

• She was a good poker player and loved to drink whiskey.
• She played the guitar and used to sing in after-hours gatherings of Austin politicians.
• She was very private about her life, even in her autobiography. In some publications after her death, she was said never to have had a romantic partner, while in others she was said to have had a long secret relationship with her friend Nancy Earl.