Barbara Charline Jordan -- First Black U.S. Congresswoman from Texas

(February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996)

Barbara Jordan was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. A Democrat, 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.


Barbara was best known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.


Barbara Jordan is also known as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.


Jordan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was also a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1978 to 1980. Barbara Jordan was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.