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WOW2 – February 2023: Women Trailblazers and Activists, 2-15 thru 2-22 [1]

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Date: 2023-02-18  

February 21, 1936 – Barbara Jordan born, American lawyer, civil rights leader, and Democratic politician; because of segregation, she was not allowed to be a student at the University of Texas at Austin, so she attended Texas Southern University, an historically-black institution, majoring in political science and history. At Texas Southern, Jordan was a national champion debater, defeating opponents from Yale and Brown and tying Harvard University. She graduated magna cum laude in 1956. After unsuccessfully running for a seat in the Texas State House of Representatives, she was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1966, becoming the first African-American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body (1967-1973). She then was the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1973-1978) from a Southern state. President Lyndon Johnson used a bit of his influence to see that she served on the House Judiciary Committee, where she memorably participated in the Nixon impeachment hearings over the Watergate scandal: “My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.” By 1975, Speaker of the House Carl Albert had appointed her to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. In 1976, Jordan became the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. In the U.S. House, she sponsored expanding coverage of the Voting Rights Act, and voted to impeach Richard Nixon. In all, she sponsored or co-sponsored over 300 bills, many of which became laws. Jordan retired from politics in 1979, and taught ethics for 17 years as an adjunct professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, ironically at the University of Texas at Austin, where segregation had kept her from being a student. Jordan was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1990. She was again a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 1992. In 1994, President Clinton awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the NAACP presented her with the Spingarn Medal. She suffered from leukemia, but died from pneumonia complications in January, 1996, at the age of 59. President Bill Clinton revealed he had wanted to nominate her to the U.S. Supreme Court, but by the time the opportunity arose, her health was already in decline.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2153596/-WOW2-February-2023-Women-Trailblazers-and-Activists-2-15-thru-2-22

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