Barbara Jordan

Uncommon card · No. 121220

Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American politician, attorney, and educator. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first Black person elected to the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, the first woman descendant of American slavery elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and one of the first two Black people elected to the U.S. House from the former Confederacy since 1901, alongside Andrew Young of Georgia. Known for her oratorial abilities, Jordan achieved national fame for her televised opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon. In 1976, she became the first Black woman, and the first woman, to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. Together with other Black politicians in the south who were elected after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, she worked to transform the Democratic Party from a party of segregation into a vehicle for...

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