Politics & Law

Barbara Jordan

Born February 21, 1936 · Houston, Texas · Joined the Ancestors January 17, 1996

The first Black woman elected to the Texas State Senate and the first Southern Black woman in the U.S. Congress — Barbara Jordan's voice commanded rooms and changed the conscience of a nation.

Known For

Watergate hearings speech

First

First Black Texas state senator since 1883

Honor

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Barbara Charline Jordan grew up in Houston's Fifth Ward, the daughter of a Baptist minister. She was inspired to pursue law after hearing attorney Edith Sampson speak at a career day event. She graduated magna cum laude from Texas Southern University and earned her law degree from Boston University.

In 1966, she became the first African American elected to the Texas State Senate since Reconstruction. In 1972, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives — the first Black woman from the Deep South to serve in Congress.

Jordan became a national figure during the 1974 Watergate hearings, delivering an opening statement so powerful in its defense of the Constitution that it is still studied today. She delivered keynote addresses at two Democratic National Conventions and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.