Barbara Jordan: November 17, 1972

Jet, Nov 24, 1997

Barbara Jordan won a seat in Congress on this day. Rep. Jordan was the first Black and first woman to be elected to Congress from Texas. She was known as an eloquent orator. In 1974, Jordan gained attention when she called for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon during the Watergate hearings.

Jordan was the first Black woman to give a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1976. She left Congress and began teaching at the University of Texas in 1978. Jordan was born in Houston in 1936, and died in Austin, TX, in 1996 of leukemia.