8. Barbara, Fighting Bob and Ella
Barbara Jordan
On February 21, 1936, Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, to Benjamin Jordan, a Baptist minister and Arlyne Patten Jordan, who worked as a domestic. Every Sunday, a prayer ceremony in the kitchen of their house was followed by services at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Barbara‟s grandparents were there, except for Grandpa Patten, who stayed at home. Barbara was baptized at around the age of twelve, at which time Grandpa Jordan sang, “Wade in the water”. Ben, Arlyne, Barbara and her two sisters, Rose Mary and Bennie, sang in church and in choirs.
Barbara attended Roberson Elementary School, and in 1952, graduated as an honor student from Phillis Wheatley High School. She debated and as a senior was named Girl of the Year. The speech at the high school given by Edith S. Sampson was an inspiration to her to enter the law profession. She hoped to attend the University of Texas in Austin, but segregation ended that thought so she went to Texas Southern University (TSU), majoring in history and political science. Before she graduated in 1956, magna cum laude, she established herself as a national champion debater, outshining students from Brown and Yale as well as tying debaters from powerhouse Harvard.
For years, she was well aware of racism and her eyes were set on that same school in Cambridge, but figured that getting accepted there wouldn't happen. She decided on Boston University. When she settled in her room the first night at the Charlesgate East, since the residence at 2 Rawley Strret was not quite ready, she asked herself, what in the world, Barbara Jordan, are you doing here? I guess I wasn't the only one who posed that question to myself. Despite all her outstanding debate victories, like so many African Americans, Jordan knew she had to excel, just to keep up with the others. It wasn't going to be an easy time.
Once in class, the language of the courts challenged her. In contracts she had to learn what promisee, promisor, lessor and lessee meant. One professor instructed them to abandon their boyfriends or girlfriends for the rest of the year. He said, don’t tell them you will see them later; no, tell them you will see them subsequently. The class would have to learn a new way of talking. Another challenge was that students wouldn't see subject review and they only had a single exam at the end of the year. Jordan also saw that questions on tests were entirely different from what she had experienced. Both a yes or no answer could be acceptable, but you needed to show some thought and reasoning for that answer. Matters in court are never black or white, more often gray. For contracts, only a half-year course, she struggled through the exam, but received a 79, so she didn't fail.
She received some assurance and relief, but found that the reading and studying she‟d have to do wouldn't leave much time for surfing the net. She took her books to deserted libraries and studied there, away from the others who might think she was stressed. Jordan also joined others for coffee and an African American study group, which she found to be very beneficial. Discussion of topics, even away from law, gave her more perspective. Talking out the decisions, issues, cases and facts was a needed supplement to mere reading.
At term‟s end she flew home, her first time on a plane. Her grades would be sent to Texas. She mentioned to her parents that the university was tough, maybe as a way of keeping her parents from too high expectations. After a few days, the mail arrived from Boston University. She opened the envelope and realized, for success she needed an average of 75. Three grades topped 75, but for Procedure, she only managed a 70. Her 80 for Commercial Law meant she had conquered the first year and things would be better.
Despite all the commitment and work, for her second year she managed to find time for chapel. She didn't have to go but she wanted to, doing so almost every Sunday. With the end of her third and final year she notified her father not to come to Boston until she received her final grades. What it had cost the family had been a financial burden, especially to her sisters. In 1959, when she was informed that she was a law school graduate, Barbara phoned home with word for the family to come to Boston. Ben bought a 1959 Olds 98 and he drove up north with Arlyne, Rose Mary and Bennie. Of the women who began the course, Barbara and her friend Issie Shelton were the only ones who graduated.
Jordan returned to Houston and passed the bar. The next step was to set up a law practice. She found an office on Lyons Avenue and added some furniture. Civil Rights laws had been passed but enforcements had crawled along at a snail‟s pace. The new attorney felt that with the passage of the Brown decision nothing had changed. To make a difference, she had to be in a position where she could see the laws implemented. She started to seriously consider politics. Her first two tries in 1962 and 1964 didn't get her a seat in the House of Representatives in Texas, but that changed in 1966. She became not only the first black in the Texas Senate since 1883, but also the first African American woman to serve there.
One day, while in session in the Texas Senate, a few senators were conversing, when one them uttered, and you know that no good xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. The speaker soon noticed Jordan in the room and apologized to her for his colorful group of words, the first of which denotes an offspring and the final one rhymes with ditch. Barbara merely replied, If a person is a no good xxxxxxxxxxxxx, then he‟s a no good xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. This reply accomplished her goal of making the senators feel comfortable with her.
She was reelected in 1968 to the Senate, serving until 1972, when she was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. No other African American woman had been pro tem of the state senate before her. On June 10, 1972, she served for one day as acting governor of Texas.
That day was one like no other, with invitations sent out to family, friends, the TSU choir and students from junior and senior high schools. It began with a breakfast, which all the family attended except for Barbara‟s dad, who was sick and resting for the big event of the day. When his daughter was sworn in, he witnessed the event, dressed in a white jacket and a carnation. It was something he wasn't about to miss. The all-day affair featured music by the TSU choir, the Jack Yates Band and the Phillis Wheatley Band. Before the affair at night, Jordan decided on a visit to see Ben who was now in the hospital, because of his heart problems. He slipped into a coma and died the next day. The headline in the New York Times read,
Father Sees Daughter Sworn In, Dies Next Day
When she was elected to Congress in 1972, Barbara received great support from Lyndon B. Johnson, especially when she landed on the House Judiciary Committee. Jordan was impressive in her televised speech in 1974 in which she supported the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. He resigned from office, but Jordan wasn't happy when the new leader of the country, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon. Speaker of the House, Carl Albert put her on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in 1975.
As large as the celebration of June 10, 1972 was, four years later brought a bigger one: the bicentennial of America‟s independence. By her speeches, concern for the less fortunate and dedication to Civil Rights and the Constitution, Jordan was a great woman, but this involved two aspects. One wasn't very flattering to her, but she decided to handle it. As a child she always felt that each meal should have meat. There probably weren't many foods that she didn't like; barbeque may have been one of her weaknesses. She realized she didn't have to stop indulging, as she could just avoid the cocktail parties and the hors d‟oeuvres before dinner as well as midnight snacks. Growing up in Houston, she was very fond of her bicycles. Her friend Nancy Earl told Jordan she would buy her a bicycle if she would lose 60 pounds by the Democratic Convention on July 12, 1976.
Barbara took on the challenge and gave a great speech at the convention. People who saw her remarked that part of her was missing that day – she had shed a few pounds. She looked as good as she sounded. No other African American woman had ever delivered the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. The Philadelphia Enquirer reported: The Democrats were losing to boredom, 1-0, last night when they had the good sense to bring Barbara Jordan off the bench. Miss Jordan, as the ballplayers say, took it downtown. She tore it up. Grand slam.
The Houston Post honored their own, saying: a poor kid from Houston’s Fifth Ward sealed her destiny as a national superstar. They jumped and cheered and clapped and stomped and yelled – and loved her. Those weren't the only newspapers offering praise with the New York Times proclaiming of Jordan: A state senator and then a member of Congress, who sought out and gradually won the confidence of the powerful and who was not beneath compromising and making deals to win some of that power. It was, in short, the road to success that white men had traveled since the country was founded.
That summer, her inspirational address was rated fifth on the list of the top 100 American speeches in the twentieth century. Some historians offered it was one of the top keynote speeches in modern history. Barbara‟s name came up as Carter‟s vice president, but she may not have accepted it even had it been offered. At the convention, she gathered a single delegate vote for President.
Despite the convention, the bicentennial was one great obstacle to Jordan getting the bike. Plans were in the works for a huge party at Barbara‟s house in Onion Creek, ten miles from the heart of Austin. It started on July 3 and continued for another day. Jordan always like a good party and there would be singing, drinking, dancing and eating – not necessarily in that order. There wasn't much time for sleeping. The days would feature plenty of barbeque, steaks, chickens, ribs, sausage, cakes, pies and homemade ice cream. They didn't forget about breakfast, either. At the convention a week afterwards, Barbara came just short of her goal by three pounds. She missed out on the bicycle.
Barbara was in favor of the Community Reinvestment Act, the 1977 legislation that demanded that banks provided services to minorities. She also came out in favor of the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed Texas Hispanics representation at the ballot box. Both the Governor of Texas and Secretary of State opposed it. Jordan also opposed and acted to stop price fixing by the corporations.
Jordan‟s fervor never died when she left the political stage in 1979. Always fond of Lyndon Johnson, she taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. She chaired the Commission on Immigration Reform for a short time, favoring penalties on employers who hired illegal aliens. She was in favor of a national identity card for all citizens in the nation and stricter immigration standards. Her views may have seemed to be against the corporations, but it was all about rights, responsibilities and the interest of the nation.
Even before the Democratic Convention of 1976, Jordan was suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). She utilized a cane and eventually had to use a wheelchair, although Jordan hid that from the media. Her cover up was so good – in this case, an acceptable one – President Bill Clinton wished to nominate her to the Supreme Court. It never happened because of Jordan‟s health. Added to MS came a diagnosis of leukemia. She died in Austin on January 17, 1996 at the age of 59.
Barbara was the first African American woman that was buried in the Texas State Cemetery. People across the land mourned her death. She was a woman who changed politics in the nation, with great dedication to the Constitution, her state and her country. There were very few who surpassed her skills in oratory, as witnessed by another stellar keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1992. There was simply something about her that made you proud to be a part of the country that produced her, were words in remembrance that came from former Texas Governor Ann Richards – she had served more than a day. President Clinton added, Barbara always stirred our national conscience.
The NAACP honored Jordan in 1992 with the Spingarm Medal, and a year later Hobart and William Smith Colleges gave her the Elizabeth Blackwell Award. One of her other numerous accomplishments was being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. She was elected to both the Texas and National Women's Hall of Fame and Barbara received the Sylvanus Thayer Award from United States Military Academy. Named after her are a terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, a high school in Houston, a middle school in Cibolo, Texas, and an elementary school in Odessa, Texas. The Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars, operated by the Kaiser Foundation, was designed for congressional summer interns who are African American graduates, seniors and juniors. Barbara Jordan: American Hero, the 1998 work by Mary Beth Rogers, and Barbara Jordan: A Self-Portrait, the Congresswoman‟s joint 1979 book with Shelby Hearon, both have more on this great Congresswoman.