Barbara C. Jordan Essay

Babara C. Jordan
Barbara C. Jordan was born February 26, 1936, and died January 17, 1996. She was born to both Benjamin Jordan and Arlyne Jordan. Barbara attended Wheatley High school, where she was inspired by Edith Sampson, to become a lawyer. In her mind she wanted to do this but there was only one law school in Texas that admitted African Americans. With support from her father Barbara Jordan graduated from Southern University in 1956, and Boston university law school in 1959. She passed the bar exams in Massachusetts and Texas before returning to Houston to open a law practice, leaving her to be the only third African- American woman to be licensed in Texas.
In 1962 and 1964, Jordan campaigned for the House Of Representatives. 1966, she won her self a seat in Texas Senate, becoming the first African American State senator since 1883, and the first black African American woman to run body. Barbara was then re-elected to a full term in the Texas Senate in in 1968, and served until 1972. She was the first African American Woman to serve as president pro tem of the state senate and served for one day as acting governor of Texas in 1972. Following in the year of 1972, she was elected to the United States House Of representatives becoming the first black woman from a Southern State to serve in the house. In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from multiple sclerosis. She had difficulty climbing stairs, and she started using a cane and eventually a wheelchair. She kept the state of her health out of the press so well that in the KUT radio documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan, former president Bill Clinton stated that he wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Court Supreme, but by the time he could do so, Jordan's health problems prevented him from nominating her.
Jordan was a lesbian with a longtime companion of more than 20 years, with Nancy Earl; Jordan never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation, but in her obituary, the Houston Chronicle mentioned her longtime relationship with Earl. After Jordan's initial unsuccessful statewide races, advisers warned her to become more discreet and not bring any female companions on the campaign trail.
Jordan met Earl, an educational psychologist who would become an occasional speechwriter in addition to Jordan's partner, on a camping trip in the late 1960s.
In 1974, Barbara Jordan made a influential, televised speech before the house of judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of president Richard Nixon. In 1976 Jordan was mentioned as possible running mate to jimmy Carter. Her speech at the 1976 Democratic National National Convention is considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history and was ranked 5th in "Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th century" list. She was the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address. Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became a professor at the University Of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson, a school of public affairs. In 1992, Barbara Jordan was a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Then in 1995, she chaired a Congressional commission that advocated increased restrictions of immigration regulations. Her seat in congress is currently held by African American democratic Sheila Jackson Lee.
Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. It was only one of many honors given to her, including election into both the Texas and National Women's Hall of Fame. In 1995, she was awarded the prestigious United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award, becoming only the second female awardee. Upon her death on January 17, 1996, Jordan lay in state at the LBJ Library on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. She was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, and was the first black woman interred there. Her papers are housed at the Barbara Jordan Archives at Texas Southern University.
The main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is named after her.
The Kaiser Family Foundation currently operates the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars, a fellowship designed for people of color who are college juniors, seniors and recent graduates as a summer experience working in a congressional office.