Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC issued the following announcement on Feb. 8.
In honor of Black History Month, Eckert Seamans is celebrating Black Legal Trailblazers who are powerful examples of leadership in the legal profession, helping to bring about change, progress, and inclusiveness.
Black Americans in the legal industry continue to make history as Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn-in as the nation’s first female vice president, as well as the first Black American and first person of South Asian descent. As a former prosecutor, Vice President Harris is frequently quoted saying she “may be the first, but certainly won’t be the last.”
Please join us in learning more about Black Legal Trailblazers during Black History Month:
Barbara C. Jordan
Barbara Charline Jordan was born on February 21, 1936 in the Fifth Ward of Houston, Texas. Her mother, Arlyne Patton Jordan, was a teacher in the community Baptist church, and her father, Benjamin Jordan, was the church’s Preacher. Jordan’s childhood was largely centered in the church as she followed in the tradition of her two elder siblings, Rose Mary Jordan McGowan and Bennie Jordan Cresswell. Even in her legal career, Jordan remained in keeping with family legacy as her maternal great-grandfather, Edward Patton, was one of the last Black members of the Texas House of Representatives during reconstruction and prior to the establishment of Jim Crow Laws that disenfranchised Black Texans and ultimately Black people in the United States.
Jordan graduated with honors from Phyllis Wheatley High School in 1952. She credits her decision to become an attorney to a speech that she heard early in her high school career, delivered by none other than Edith Spurlock Sampson. Due to segregation, Jordan was prohibited from attending the University of Texas at Austin and instead attended one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Texas Southern University. She studied political science and history, pledged Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and graduated magna cum laude in 1956. Jordan went on to law school at Boston University, earning her juris doctorate in 1959.
Jordan taught at the Tuskegee Institute the year she earned her law degree and returned to Houston in 1960, where she opened a private law practice. She began her political career in 1962 when she campaigned for the Texas House of Representatives, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. Undeterred, she tried again without success in 1964, but in 1966, she won a seat in the Texas Senate, becoming the first Black senator in the state since 1883 and the first Black woman to ever hold the seat, until June of 1972. She quickly earned her colleagues’ respect when she worked to pass a state minimum wage law that protected farmworkers. She supported the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as its expansion that protected the rights of Hispanics in Texas, which was opposed at the time by Governor Dolph Briscoe and Secretary of State Mark White. Jordan was the first Black woman elected by her colleagues to serve as president pro tempore of the state senate. She also served for one day as acting governor of Texas, the standing tradition on the last day of a senator’s term, making her the only Black woman to serve as governor of a state. While serving as part of the Texas legislature, she co-sponsored and sponsored at least 70 bills.
Jordan’s political career continued in 1972 when she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first woman elected in their own right to do so. In 1973, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and continued her political career while battling the disease in silence. She received enormous support from her friend and mentor Lyndon B. Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House Judiciary Committee. In 1974, Jordan made a televised speech before that same committee supporting the impeachment of Richard Nixon. It is celebrated by many as one of the greatest speeches in American history, as Jordan firmly stood by the Constitution, lauded its system of checks and balances, and never outright stated her desire for impeachment, but rather implied her position through her points and explication. Jordan stated facts in her speech, coupled with quotes from those who wrote the Constitution and earned national praise for “rhetoric, morals, integrity and wisdom.” The following year, she was appointed by then-Speaker of the House, Carl Albert, to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
Jordan became the first Black woman to deliver a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1976, garnering attention as a potential running mate to Jimmy Carter. Despite never being a candidate, Jordan did indeed receive one delegate vote for president at the convention. Jordan showed support for the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which required banks to make services and lending available to underserved, poor, and marginalized communities. Jordan also authored an act that ended federal authorization of price-fixing by manufacturers. While serving, Jordan co-authored or authored more than 300 bills or resolutions, several of which remain in effect.
She retired from politics three years later in 1979, becoming an adjunct professor of ethics at the University of Texas Austin, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. In 1992, she again served as a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. In 1994, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she was presented the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP. Jordan was honored numerous times throughout her life, earning more than 20 honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Harvard and Princeton. She was also elected into both the Texas and National Women’s Hall of Fame. From 1994-1996, Jordan chaired the U.S. Commission on immigration reform. She died of pneumonia that developed as a complication of leukemia on January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas. She is buried in the Texas State Cemetery among the state’s governors, senators, and Congress members, becoming the first Black person to rest there.
Original source can be found here.