by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Barbara Jordan was born in 1936 in Houston, Texas to a teacher mother and Baptist preacher father. Jordan grew up to become the first African-American woman voted into the Texas Senate (1966-1972) and the first Black woman from the South elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1972-1979).
Jordan is best known for her superlative oratory skills, in particular the U.S. Judiciary Committee speech she gave in Congress almost 46 years ago to the day supporting the impeachment of Richard Nixon, as well as the Keynote address she gave at the 1976 Democratic National Convention (the first Black woman to do so in the Convention’s 144-year history).
Jordan also was the first and (so far) only Black woman to serve as Governor (albeit for one day on June 10, 1972) of any state in America. While in Congress, Jordan supported the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, legislation that required banks to lend and make services available to underserved poor and minority communities.
She also supported the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and expansion of it to cover “language minorities”; this expansion offered protection to Spanish-speaking Latinos in her home state of Texas even when opposed by the Texas Governor and Secretary of State. Jordan also authored an act that ended federal authorization of price fixing by manufacturers.
After retiring from politics in 1979, Jordan worked as a professor of Ethics at the University of Texas at Austin. Around this time, Jordan was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and eventually had to get around via wheelchair, but that did not stop her from being an active scholar and public servant.
President Bill Clinton wanted to nominate Jordan to the U.S. Supreme Court, but her health issues (which soon also included leukemia) prevented him from nominating her.
I started reading up on Barbara Jordan a few years ago because I’d always heard about her “firsts” but didn’t really didn’t have a sense of who she was or what made her formidable.
Then I listened to and watched her speeches. My. Heavens. If you haven’t heard it before, you MUST HEAR HER VOICE.
The level of command, intelligence, eloquence and undeniable, immovable spirit she possessed actually made me want to be a citizen of the America and Democratic Party to which she believed in and was committed to manifesting. To quote from her for-the-ages and still-all-too-relevant 1976 Convention Keynote speech:
I could easily spend this time praising the accomplishments of this party and attacking the Republicans — but I don’t choose to do that. I could list the many problems which Americans have.
I could list the problems which cause people to feel cynical, angry, frustrated: problems which include lack of integrity in government; the feeling that the individual no longer counts; the reality of material and spiritual poverty; the feeling that the grand American experiment is failing or has failed. I could recite these problems, and then I could sit down and offer no solutions.
But I don’t choose to do that either. The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems. We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.
We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.
But I don’t choose to do that either. The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems. We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.To hear her speak, which I highly recommend, watch her 1976 DNC speech below:
To learn more about Barbara Jordan, read her biography Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Mary Beth Rogers, her 1979 autobiography Barbara Jordan: A Self-Portrait or click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jordan or: https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/16031
#gettheknowledge #blackhistorymonth #bhm
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I vividly remember Barbara Jordan and your tribute to her is well taken and very accurate.
She is a Boston Univ. Law School alum and overcame barriers that would defeat most people.
I urge all to read her biography by Mary Beth Rogers.
Sincerely,
James A. Johnson, Esq.
Barbara Jordan was one of the first black women I saw in power like Shirley Chisholm. My mother used to say how she loved to hear her speak. She deserves to be better known like Fannie Lou Hamer.
I grew up during those times, and Congresswoman Jordan was indeed an impressive lady. If it weren’t for her, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, and others, there would have been no Vice President Kamala Harris. May these great ladies rest in peace.
She also chose her intimate relationship with a woman. I attended the laying in state at LBJ Library in Austin. The line was a long one.