DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Barbara Charline Jordan — and friend, this one deserves every word. February 21, 1936. Houston, Texas.
A girl is born to Benjamin Meredith and Arlyne Patten Jordan, and nobody in the world yet knows that the voice being drawn into those lungs is going to shake the United States Congress to its foundation. Her name is Barbara Charline Jordan. The family was close-knit — the kind of family that shapes who you are before the world gets a chance to try.
They shaped her religious convictions, her moral compass, and something else: a fierce academic ambition that, once lit, was not going to go quietly. You could already see it at Wheatley High School, where she was excelling in oratory competitions. Words, it turned out, were her instrument.
And she was learning to play. At Texas Southern University, she kept right on winning those competitions — and in 1956, she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in government studies. Magna cum laude.
With highest praise. Then she packed up and headed to Boston University Law School, where she became one of two females — both Black — to graduate in 1959. Two women in a sea of men, and she walked out of there with a law degree and a political career waiting to happen.
It happened in 1966. That was the year Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to win a seat in the Texas Senate. Now, the Texas Senate in 1966 was not exactly lining up to hand out welcomes.
You've heard the phrase "good ole boy" politics — well, the marker uses it plainly, and plainly is how we'll say it. She navigated all of that. Her intelligence and her oratory — that voice, those words — earned her the respect of her peers whether they were prepared to give it or not.
Then came March 28, 1972. That date is worth holding onto for a second. On that day, Barbara Jordan became the first Black woman ever elected President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate.
The first. Ever. And she wasn't done.
That same year — 1972 — she won a seat in the United States Congress. National fame, when it came, arrived in the form of a scandal. President Richard Nixon, the 1972 Watergate scandal, and the House Judiciary Committee tasked with investigating his participation in it.
Barbara Jordan sat on that committee. And when she spoke — well, the nation listened in the way it doesn't often stop to listen. She had said herself, "I never wanted to be run-of-the-mill." Nobody who heard her that day would have accused her of it.
By 1979, her health was giving her trouble, and she made a decision. She moved to Austin and accepted a professorship at the University of Texas. Retired from public office, yes — but she kept advising, kept serving as a national figure, kept being Barbara Jordan, right up until January 17, 1996, the day she died.
One life. Born in Houston. Graduated magna cum laude.
Broke through doors in Austin and in Washington that had never opened for a Black woman before. And she did it, as she herself said, because she never wanted to be run-of-the-mill. Texas has known some extraordinary voices.
Barbara Charline Jordan's was something else altogether.
What the marker says
(February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) Barbara Charline Jordan, one of the nation’s preeminent African-American orators and politicians of the 20th century, was born in Houston to Benjamin Meredith and Arlyne Patten Jordan. Her close-knit family greatly influenced her religious and moral attitudes, as well as the academic ambitions that would propel her to success. She excelled in oratory competitions at Wheatley High School and Texas Southern University. In 1956, Jordan graduated magna cum laude from Texas Southern with a degree in government studies. She enrolled at Boston University Law School and was one of two females, both black, to graduate in 1959. Her political career began in 1966, when she became the first African-American woman to win a seat in the Texas Senate. Jordan’s intelligence and oratory skills helped her navigate “good ole boy” politics to earn the respect of her peers. On March 28, 1972, she became the first black woman to be elected President Pro Tempore of the Texas Senate. The same year, she won a seat in the United States Congress. Jordan gained national fame when she served on the House Judiciary Committee to investigate President Richard Nixon’s participation in the 1972 Watergate scandal. In 1979, Jordan, then suffering from health problems, moved to Austin, where she accepted a professorship at the University of Texas. Although she was retired from public office, she continued to serve as a political advisor and national figure until her death. Barbara Jordan once said, “I never wanted to be run-of-the-mill,” and in avoiding that characterization, she broke down racial and gender barriers in state and national politics. (2012)