BHM_Barbara_Jordan - add/view comments ()

US representative, born in Houston, Texas, USA. She studied at Boston University, then practised law in Houston (1960 - 7), entering Democratic politics in the Texas Senate (1967 - 72), and continuing in the US House of Representatives (1973 - 9) as the first black congressman to be elected from the Deep South. In 1974, she made an influential televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

Jordan was mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Her electrifying speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention before illness cut short her political career, is considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history.

She became a professor at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin.

She again was a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 1992. In 1995, Jordan chaired a Congressional commission that advocated increased restriction of immigration and increased penalties on employers that violated U.S. immigration regulations. Her seat in Congress is currently held by African-American Democrat Sheila Jackson-Lee.