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(UT Campus) 24th and Whitis streets near the Texas Union
Barbara Jordan was a native Texan and the first African American from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
After graduating magna cum laude from Texas Southern University in 1956, she attended Boston University Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bars in 1959. In 1966, Jordan won a seat in the Texas Senate, the first African American since 1883 to do so.
In 1972 Jordan was elected to represent Texas' Eighteenth District in the U.S. House of Representatives. While in Congress, she served as a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Government Operations. She served on the House Judiciary Committee, influential during the Nixon impeachment hearings. In 1976, she became the first African-American to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, which was considered by many to be the highlight of the convention. She retired from politics in 1979 and became a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.
Jordan was well known for her eloquence and was a champion of civil rights as she worked tirelessly to create an inclusive society that valued and respected all of its citizens. She died on January 17, 1996 at the age of 59 due to complications from pneumonia and leukemia.
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