Barbara Jordan

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Barbara Jordan – Trailblazing Leadership & Legacy in Public Service

Barbara Charline Jordan made history in 1966 as the first African American woman elected to the Texas Senate and the first African American to serve since 1883. Rising from Houston’s Fifth Ward, she became a national defender of the U.S. Constitution and a leading voice in Democratic Party politics for two decades.

Jordan’s journey began at Phyllis Wheatley High School, where she was inspired to pursue law. She later attended Texas Southern University, excelling as a debate team champion, before graduating magna cum laude in 1956 and earning her law degree from Boston University.

Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1972, Jordan became the first African American woman from the South to serve in the House of Representatives. Her landmark moments include her 1974 impeachment speech during the Nixon hearings, efforts to expand the Voting Rights Act in 1975, and her iconic 1976 Democratic National Convention keynote address.

From 1979 until her passing in 1996, Jordan was a distinguished professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where she held the LBJ Centennial Chair in National Policy and delivered a keynote at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, cementing her legacy as a champion of democracy and civil rights.