Barbara Jordan

Barbara Charline Jordan ( born February 21, 1936 in Houston, Texas, † January 17, 1996 in Austin, Texas) was an American high school teacher and politician of the Democratic Party, which the state of Texas took a few years in the U.S. House of Representatives, on the Democratic National Convention in 1976 as the first African American woman gave a keynote speech and in 1994 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Life

Senator and Congressman in Texas

After visiting the Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston in 1952, she began studying political science at Texas Southern University and graduated in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA Political Science ) Magna cum laude. A subsequent post-graduate studies in law at the Law School of Boston University, she finished 1959 with a Bachelor of Laws ( LL.B. ). After their subsequent attorney's approval in the states of Massachusetts and Texas, she worked as a lawyer. Most recently, she was an administrative assistant in 1966 a judge at the District Court of Harris County.

In 1967 she began her political career in the Democratic Party and was elected in 1967 as a member of the Senate of Texas, where she was employed until 1973.

After she was elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and represented in this January 3, 1973 to January 3, 1979 18th congressional district of Texas. During this time she reached national prominence because it was the first African American woman a keynote speech alongside John Glenn held at the Democratic National Convention, and at times was also considered a possible Democratic candidate for the office of U.S. Vice President.

After she had in 1978 waived for reelection in congressional elections, it was established in 1979 professor at the University of Texas at Austin and taught there until 1982. Moreover, published Barbara Jordan, who lived in a lesbian relationship twenty years along with Shelby Hearon 1979 an autobiography titled Barbara Jordan, A Self Portrait.

Civic engagement and Presidential Medal of Freedom

In 1980, she was next to Norman Lear of the founders of the People for the American Way, a liberal political action group, with the express intention of the growing influence of the Religious Right, the strictly conservative American churches to counter. In addition, she worked from 1982 to 1986, Chairman of the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial in National Policy, and the temporary chairman of the commission for the reform of immigration to the United States.

For its long-standing commitment to civil rights and civil liberties Barbara Jordan was honored several times and added to the National Women 's Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1992, she held again the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Having already received the Spingarn Medal in 1992, she was finally in 1994 the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded, in addition to the peer Golden Congressional Medal of Honor one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States.

Barbara Jordan, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, died of pneumonia.

Background literature

• Austin Teutsch: Barbara Jordan: The Biography. Cedar Park, Golden Touch Press. In 1997.
• Mary Beth Rogers: Barbara Jordan: American Hero. New York: Bantam Books. In 1998.
• James Mendelsohn: Barbara Jordan: Getting Things. Fitzhenry & Whiteside. , 2000.