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Barbara_Jordan.jpg
Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936-January 17, 1996) was an American politician from Texas. She served as a member of Congress from 1973 to 1979.
Jordan was born in Houston, Texas's Fifth Ward. She graduated Phillis Wheatley High School in 1952, going on to graduate magna cum laude from Texas Southern University in 1956. She then attained a law degree from Boston University Law School in 1959.
Jordan unsuccessfully ran for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964. Her persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first African American senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body. She received extensive support from President Lyndon Johnson. Reelected to a full term in the Texas Senate in 1968, she served until 1972, when she made a successful bid to represent Texas's Eighteenth Congressional District in the U.S. House, becoming the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the House. She was reelected in 1974 and 1976.
In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from a neurological impairment which eventually confined her to a wheelchair. In 1974, she made a well-known speech against Richard Nixon. She gave a speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention that is considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history. Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, taking time to speak at subsequent Democratic national conventions. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.
It was stated in Jordan's Houston Chronicle obituary that she was a lesbian, having lived with partner Nancy Earl for more than 20 years.
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