(1936-1996)

• Jordan was elected to the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first female African-American to do so. In 1972, she was elected president pro-tempore of the Texas Senate - the first African-American elected to preside over a legislative body anywhere in the country.
•  When Jordan was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 she became the first African-American woman to represent a previously Confederate state in Congress.
• In 1976, Barbara Jordan became the first African-American Woman to deliver a keynote address at a political convention.
• As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan was in the national spotlight during the Watergate hearings that would eventually lead to the resignation of President Nixon. Her style of oratory and clarity of vision on the issues made her potential as a presidential candidate a topic of conversation among liberals.
• Jordan addressed the Democratic National Convention again in 1992 in New York. In 1994 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Despite her declining health she continued to teach and serve in public office, including a post on the Presidential task force on immigration reform.
• Jordan died of pneumonia on January 17, 1996 at the Austin Diagnostic Medical Center. President Clinton and former Texas Governor Anne Richards, both of whom extended specific condolences to Earl, eulogized her. On January 20, 1996 Barbara Jordan was buried at the Texas State Cemetery which is an honor reserved for Texas heroes. She was the first African-American woman to be buried there