 Barbara Jordan was born on February 21, 1936 in Houston, Texas, to Benjamin and Arlyne Jordan. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her family lived in the Fifth Ward area of Houston, a black ghetto. She attended schools that were segregated.

 Barbara Jordan’s grandfather taught her about the importance of education. She worked hard in school and graduated from Wheatley High School in 1952 at the top of her class. She excelled at debate and won numerous awards.

 Barbara Jordan studied law at Boston University. She was a gifted speaker. She returned to Houston in 1959 to practice law in her parents’ kitchen helping poor people solve their legal problems.

 In 1966, Barbara Jordan became the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the Texas legislature.

 In 1972, she became the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress from the South. While in Congress, Barbara Jordan served on the Watergate Committee in 1974, calling for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

 At the 1976 Democratic National Convention, she gave a powerful and memorable keynote speech, the first African American woman to give a keynote to that body.

 In 1977 Jordan announced she would not run for another term in Congress, and became a professor, teaching government at the University of Texas in Austin. She taught about justice and equality, which she considered to be the two fundamental principles of America.

 Barbara Jordan struggled for many years with leukemia and multiple sclerosis. She died in 1996 and was the first African American woman to be buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.

 A bronze statue of civil rights champion Barbara Jordan was unveiled April 24, 2009, on The University of Texas at Austin campus. Jordan is the first female public figure so honored on the campus.

 A life sized statue of the late Barbara Jordan resides in the Austin- Bergstrom International Airport. It was unveiled in She had spent her life working for racial equality and harmony.Barbara Jordan

 On Dec. 28, 2010, the U.S. Postal Service announced that the late Barbara Jordan was the 2011 Black Heritage stamp honoree, the 34th in the series. Jordan, a Texas lawyer who was the first African- American congresswoman from the Lone Star State.

 Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.  Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.  I never intended to become a run-of-the-mill person.  One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.  Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.