Just two weeks before what would have been Barbara Jordan's 81st birthday, the Texas Capitol is remembering the notable politician's legacy with a special exhibit for Black History Month. The exhibit is curated by the Barbara Jordan Freedom Foundation and highlights Jordan's background, rise to elected office and lasting legacy.
Max Sherman, a former state senator who served in the Legislature at the same time as Jordan, said the politician grew up in Houston, in a segregated Texas.
"She went to an all-segregated high school, attended Texas Southern and had to go out of state to get her law degree at Boston University," he said.
After Jordan returned to Texas, she began practicing law from "her kitchen table," because as a minority and a woman, she could not get a job at a large law firm, Sherman said.
Sherman said she had higher aspirations beyond just practicing law, leading her to run for a position in the Texas House of Representatives twice, losing both times.
Finally, in 1966, on her third attempt, Jordan was successful in her bid for state office, becoming the first black woman to hold such a role in Texas. In Jordan's time at the Capitol, she helped pass the state's first minimum wage law and established the Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission.
Sherman said her legacy extended beyond this, though. When Jordan first met Sherman, she told him that without one another, neither would be able to accomplish needed policy reforms for her constituents in the urban Houston or his in the conservative panhandle of north Texas.
"She would do battle, the way you do in the Legislature: She would try to win," he said. "And if she didn't win, she would get ready to fight the next battles."
In 1972, six years after her first win, Jordan sought out national office in the U.S. House of Representatives. She won, becoming the first black woman from the South to ascend to that level of government.
Jordan spent six years total in Congress and left a legacy. During former President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, Jordan emerged as a moral voice, calling for Nixon's impeachment.
The congresswoman's remarks on this subject have been revered for decades and were named as one of the top 20 speeches of the 20th century by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Another speech that made this list was Jordan's address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. This speech ranked fifth, just behind speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., former President John F. Kennedy and former President Franklin Roosevelt.
Sherman said it is important to note that while Jordan spent 12 total years in government, she served much longer as a educator to Texans at every level.
"When you go out to the state cemetery and look on her gravestone, there is one word printed, and that is 'teacher,'" Sherman said.
Sherman said Jordan was known among her students for saying that each person has a price to pay for the place they occupy on the earth, and that everyone has an obligation to try to serve the whole society.
To learn more about Jordan, visit the special exhibit at the Texas Capitol. The exhibit is open from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. until Feb. 10 and is free to the public.
