Barbara Jordan Biography
Barbara Jordan (Full name – Barbara Charline Jordan) was an American lawyer, educator, and politician who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. She was born on February 21, 1936, in Houston, Texas, USA, and died on January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas, USA.
Jordan was a member of the Democratic Party. She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. Jordan was best known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon, and as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.
Jordan was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. From 1978 to 1980, she was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors. Jordan was a woman of many firsts as she was also the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.
Her work as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which recommended reducing legal immigration by about one-third, is frequently cited by American immigration restrictionists. President Bill Clinton said that he had wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Supreme Court, but by the time he could do so, Jordan’s health problems prevented him from nominating her. This was revelation came in the KUT-FM radio documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan.
Barbara Jordan Spouse | Partner
There was and there still is considerable speculation as to Jordan’s sexuality and the nature of her and Earl’s relationship. Neither Jordan nor Earl are known to have addressed, recorded or shared with others to date.
Barbara Jordan Death
In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from multiple sclerosis. She nearly drowned in her backyard swimming pool while doing physical therapy on July 31, 1988, but she was saved by her long term partner, Nancy Earl. Earl found her floating in the pool and revived her.
She later also suffered from leukemia. Jordan died on January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas due to complications from pneumonia. As at the time of her death, Jordan was 59 years old.
Barbara Jordan School
The school was built in 1993 and named after political leader Barbara Jordan. The school community along with the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Barbara Jordan Foundation and the University of Texas at Austin held a program to commemorate the many accomplishments and achievements of Ms. Jordan each year in February. The educational program is aligned with the Early College High School initiative that supports preparation for college-level courses beginning in ninth grade.
Barbara Jordan Books
Barbara Jordan is a book by American author Mary Beth Rogers about the life and times of Jordan. She explores the mystery of this woman who was so private that even her close friends did not know the name of the illness that debilitated her for two decades until it struck her down at the age of fifty-nine.
In Barbara Jordan, Mary Beth Rogers deftly explores the forces that shaped the moral character and quiet dignity of this extraordinary woman. She reveals the seeds of Jordan’s trademark stoicism while recapturing the essence of a black woman entering politics just as the civil rights movement exploded across the nation.
Celebrating Jordan’s elegance, passion, and patriotism, this illuminating portrayal gives new depth to our understanding of one of the most influential women of our time a woman whose powerful convictions and flair for oratorical drama changed the political landscape of America’s twentieth century.
Barbara Jordan Statue
On April 24, 2009, a bronze statue of civil rights champion Barbara Jordan was unveiled on The University of Texas at Austin campus, after a week of special events they held in honor of the late congresswoman. Jordan is the first female public figure so honored on the campus.
Barbara Jordan Immigration
Barbara Jordan chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform from 1994 until her death. The commission recommended that total immigration be cut to approximately 550,000 per year which would be a one-third reduction. The commission supported eliminating visa preferences for siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens, increasing enforcement against illegal immigrants and their employers, and ending unskilled immigration except for refugees and nuclear families.
The commission’s report to Congress said that it was “a right and responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest”, concluded that “legal immigration has strengthened and can continue to strengthen this country” and “decrie[d] hostility and discrimination against immigrants as antithetical to the traditions and interests of the country.” The commission recommended that the United States reduce the number of refugees admitted annually to a floor of 50,000 (this level would be lifted during emergencies).
Barbara Jordan Quotes
More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.
We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brainpower.
We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future.
Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He’s just incapable of it.
If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
What the people want is very simple – they want an America as good as its promise.
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