Barbara Jordan

BORN: FEBRUARY 21, 1936, HOUSTON, TX

DIED: JANUARY 17, 1996, AUSTIN, TX

Justice of right is always to take precedence over might.

Barbara Jordan raised her arms to quiet the thunderous applause greeting her in Madison Square Garden. It was July 1976, and as representative from the 18th District in Texas, the congresswoman took her place at the podium to begin her keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. She was the first African American elected to the Texas state senate after Reconstruction, and the first African American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. Barbara was also an experienced, seasoned educator and orator, who had been a champion debater in high school and college. When she spoke, people listened.

Barbara was the youngest of three daughters born to Benjamin Jordan and Arlyne Patten. She majored in political science and history at Texas Southern University before earning her law degree from Boston University in 1959. Known for her compelling voice and intellect, Barbara returned to Houston to start a private law practice, but she was soon in the political arena, first participating in the 1960 Kennedy-Johnson campaign, then starting her own political career in 1966. In 1972, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

While serving on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings in July 1974, Barbara quoted the original drafters of the Constitution in a televised speech, “Statements on the Articles of Impeachment,” in support of President Richard Nixon’s impeachment and in defense of the American system of checks and balances. Her speech is often considered one of the best of the twentieth century: “I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.”

During her tenure as a congresswoman, Representative Jordan sponsored or cosponsored more than three hundred bills and resolutions. She was a staunch supporter of civil rights and banking reform, and was known for her high ethical standards.

Among Barbara’s numerous awards and honors are the 1992 Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, the 1994 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and her induction in 1990 to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.