“She always did sound like God.” That is a quote from Molly Ivins, syndicated newspaper columnist and political commentator, in “Barbara Jordan: Brains, Courage And Pragmatism” which she wrote in 1994, a week after Jordan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Only two years later, Ivins would be writing an obituary. Barbara Jordan died on January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas, after many years battling multiple sclerosis and leukemia.
In “Eloquent Barbara Jordan: A Great Spirit Has Left Us,” Ivins wrote, “Her great baritone voice was so impressive that her colleagues in the Legislature used to joke that if Hollywood ever needed someone to be the voice of the Lord Almighty, only Jordan would do.”
In “The Making of Barbara Jordan,” columnist and screenwriter Bill Broyles wrote about the reaction to her voice:
On hearing it for the first time, one awed young woman said, “I turned on my television set and thought I was listening to God.” It sounds, as Congressman Andrew Young of Georgia says, “like the heavens have opened up.”
Beyond the impact of her voice, and the impact of her presence on the national stage—during the impeachment of Richard Nixon in 1974, and keynoting at the Democratic National Convention in 1976—she has left us both the legacy of her words and the example of her deeds. As we celebrate the first week of Women’s History Month 2016, join me in honoring the life and work of Barbara Charline Jordan.
This is not the first time I have written about Barbara Jordan here, and I am going to borrow some of today’s piece from an earlier post in Black Kos.
From her congressional biography:
Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, on February 21, 1936, one of three daughters of Benjamin M. Jordan and Arlyne Patten Jordan. Benjamin Jordan, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, worked in a local warehouse before becoming pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, which his family had long attended. Arlyne Jordan was an accomplished public speaker. Barbara Jordan was educated in the Houston public schools and graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in 1952. She earned a B.A. from Texas Southern University in 1956 and a law degree from Boston University in 1959. That same year she was admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bars, and she began to practice law in Houston in 1960. To supplement her income (she worked temporarily out of her parents’ home), Jordan was employed as an administrative assistant to a county judge.
Barbara Jordan’s political turning point occurred when she worked on the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign in 1960. She eventually helped manage a highly organized get–out–the–vote program that served Houston’s 40 African–American precincts. In 1962 and 1964, Jordan ran for the Texas house of representatives but lost both times, so in 1966 she ran for the Texas senate when court–enforced redistricting created a constituency that consisted largely of minority voters. Jordan won, defeating a white liberal and becoming the first African–American state senator in the U.S. since 1883 as well as the first black woman ever elected to that body. The other 30 (male, white) senators received her coolly, but Jordan won them over as an effective legislator who pushed through bills establishing the state’s first minimum wage law, antidiscrimination clauses in business contracts, and the Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission. On March 28, 1972, Jordan’s peers elected her president pro tempore of the Texas senate, making her the first black woman in America to preside over a legislative body. In seconding the nomination, one of Jordan’s male colleagues on the other side of the chamber stood, spread his arms open, and said, “What can I say? Black is beautiful.” One of Jordan’s responsibilities as president pro tempore was to serve as acting governor when the governor and lieutenant governor were out of the state. When Jordan filled that largely ceremonial role on June 10, 1972, she became the first black chief executive in the nation.
Jordan was one of the most brilliant women and politicians of our time. She was ...
...the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives, and the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention".
She is one of my all-time sheroes.
In this year when Democrats will once again nominate a presidential candidate, it’s fitting that we revisit the powerful oration delivered by Jordan 40 years ago.
Much of what she had to say then still applies today (full transcript here).
She opened her speech pointing to its historic significance, which was also a tribute to hope that we as a nation can move forward.
It was one hundred and forty-four years ago that members of the Democratic Party first met in convention to select a Presidential candidate. Since that time, Democrats have continued to convene once every four years and draft a party platform and nominate a Presidential candidate. And our meeting this week is a continuation of that tradition. But there is something different about tonight. There is something special about tonight. What is different? What is special?
I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.
When -- A lot of years passed since 1832, and during that time it would have been most unusual for any national political party to ask a Barbara Jordan to deliver a keynote address. But tonight, here I am. And I feel -- I feel that notwithstanding the past that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American Dream need not forever be deferred.
She described back then where we are right now.
We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.
She spoke to the strengths of Democrats:
We believe that the government which represents the authority of all the people, not just one interest group, but all the people, has an obligation to actively -- underscore actively -- seek to remove those obstacles which would block individual achievement -- obstacles emanating from race, sex, economic condition. The government must remove them, seek to remove them. We.
We are a party -- We are a party of innovation. We do not reject our traditions, but we are willing to adapt to changing circumstances, when change we must. We are willing to suffer the discomfort of change in order to achieve a better future. We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.
This, my friends is the bedrock of our concept of governing. This is a part of the reason why Americans have turned to the Democratic Party. These are the foundations upon which a national community can be built. Let all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.
She spoke strongly about the responsibility of elected officials, our "public servants."
As we watch hypocritical Republican attempts to destroy our system, defy the Constitution they are always citing, dismiss our duly elected president’s right to nominate a person to the Supreme Court, and are barraged with the racist, xenophobic and misogynistic rhetoric of their candidates for our highest office, her words ring in my ears once again.
And now, what are those of us who are elected public officials supposed to do? We call ourselves "public servants" but I'll tell you this: We as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good if we are derelict in upholding the common good. More is required -- More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.
If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If -- If we as public officials propose, we must produce. If we say to the American people, "It is time for you to be sacrificial" -- sacrifice. If the public official says that, we [public officials] must be the first to give. We must be. And again, if we make mistakes, we must be willing to admit them. We have to do that. What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.
Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of a national community. It's tough, difficult, not easy. But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny; if each of us remembers, when self-interest and bitterness seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny.
I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.
I have confidence that the Democratic Party can lead the way.
I have that confidence.
She ended her speech with a pointed reminder to Republicans.
Now I began this speech by commenting to you on the uniqueness of a Barbara Jordan making a keynote address. Well I am going to close my speech by quoting a Republican President and I ask you that as you listen to these words of Abraham Lincoln, relate them to the concept of a national community in which every last one of us participates:
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master." This -- This -- "This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no Democracy."
Many of us have heard or seen Jordan’s powerful statement on the articles of impeachment, delivered on July 25, 1974, which led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. Rarely do we discuss her major legislative accomplishments:
Jordan supported the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, legislation that required banks to lend and make services available to underserved poor and minority communities. She supported the renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and expansion of that act to cover language minorities; this extended protection to Hispanics in Texas and was opposed by Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe and Secretary of State Mark White. She also authored an act that ended federal authorization of price fixing by manufacturers. During Jordan's tenure as a Congresswoman she sponsored or cosponsored over 300 bills or resolutions, several of which are still in effect today as law.
In a time when we have seen the Supreme Court gut much of the power of the Voting Rights Act, we must honor Jordan’s contributions in 1975 expanding those rights.
The 1975 amendments also expanded voting rights for minority groups that traditionally had fallen outside the Act's protections. Civil rights organizations representing Hispanic, Asian American, Native Alaskan, and Native American interests argued before Congress that such groups often were the victims of discriminatory voting practices, particularly in areas where English was not the dominant language. After Congress heard testimony of language discrimination in voting, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-TX) successfully led an effort to amend the Act to protect language minorities. Specifically, Congress amended the definition of "test or device" to prohibit laws requiring ballots and voting information be provided exclusively in English in jurisdictions where a single-language minority group comprised more than 5% of the voting-age population. This in turn expanded the coverage formula to reach states such as Texas that Congress wanted to cover. Congress also enacted bilingual election requirements, which require election officials in certain jurisdictions to provide ballots and voting information in the language of language minority groups.
Ari Berman details much of that history and Jordan’s role in an article titled “The Lost Promise of the Voting Rights Act.”
Fifty years after the act was signed into law, the story of its 1975 expansion stands in contrast with the act’s dwindling bipartisan support today.
Barbara Jordan stood over the president’s left shoulder as he signed the bill. She asked him to give her an autographed copy of the index cards he read from during his speech. “That was my first big legislative victory and I wanted a memento,” she said.
In addition to the states covered in 1965, the new act required 513 jurisdictions in 30 states to hold bilingual elections and 276 additional counties to approve voting changes under Section 5—all of Texas, along with 14 counties in Arizona; Kings and Merced counties in California; El Paso County, Colorado; Hardee, Hillsborough, and Monroe counties in Florida; and Bronx and Kings counties in New York. The VRA had already enfranchised black Americans in 1965 and expanded the franchise to 18-year-olds in 1970. Now it covered the country’s fourth-largest state and extended vital protections to new groups like Hispanics in the Southwest, Native Americans in Arizona, and Asian Americans in New York City.
The new VRA made an immediate difference. Within months of the law taking effect, the DOJ stopped a massive voter purge in Texas. The number of Mexican Americans holding county and municipal offices in Texas increased from 353 to 559 in the decade after the 1975 amendments. All across the state, from San Antonio to Frio County, the federal government and civil-rights groups sued to force hundreds of county commissions, city councils, and school boards to adopt fair districts that didn’t deny representation to Mexican Americans. Hispanic political power flourished beyond Texas, with the number of Hispanic members of Congress from the Southwest rising from 1 in 1975 to 9 by 1985. City councils in America’s three largest cities—New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles—became integrated because of the VRA.
Revered by Americans across the political spectrum, Barbara Jordan was "the most outspoken moral voice of the American political system," in the words of former President Bill Clinton, who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. Throughout her career as a Texas senator, U.S. congresswoman, and distinguished professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Barbara Jordan lived by a simple creed: "Ethical behavior means being honest, telling the truth, and doing what you said you were going to do." Her strong stand for ethics in government, civil liberties, and democratic values still provides a standard around which the nation can unite in the twenty-first century.
This volume brings together several major political speeches that articulate Barbara Jordan's most deeply held values. They include:
- "Erosion of Civil Liberties," a commencement address delivered at Howard University on May 12, 1974, in which Jordan warned that "tyranny in America is possible"
- "The Constitutional Basis for Impeachment," Jordan's ringing defense of the U.S. Constitution before the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate break-in
- Keynote addresses to the Democratic National Conventions of 1976 and 1992, in which Jordan set forth her vision of the Democratic Party as an advocate for the common good and a catalyst of change
- Testimony in the U.S. Congress on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and on immigration reform
- Meditations on faith and politics from two National Prayer Breakfasts
- Acceptance speech for the 1995 Sylvanus Thayer Award presented by the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy, in which Jordan challenged the military to uphold the values of "duty, honor, country"
Accompanying the speeches, some of which readers can also watch on an enclosed DVD, are context-setting introductions by volume editor Max Sherman. The book concludes with the eloquent eulogy that Bill Moyers delivered at Barbara Jordan's memorial service in 1996, in which he summed up Jordan's remarkable life and career by saying, "Just when we despaired of finding a hero, she showed up, to give the sign of democracy.... This is no small thing. This, my friends, this is grace. And for it we are thankful."
For more on Jordan, Public Radio International’s documentary Rediscovering Barbara Jordan from KUT 90.5 Austin is well worth a listen.
I just spent some reflective time watching Congresswoman Jordan’s funeral service which included tributes from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, President Bill Clinton, Cicely Tyson, Gov. Ann Richards, and more. The service was described in the New York Times as a celebration.
The two-hour service at the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church was punctuated by repeated applause and soft murmurs of "Amen," as when the actress Cicely Tyson said of Ms. Jordan: "If I were sitting on a porch across from God, I would thank him for sending you to us." Former Gov. Ann W. Richards of Texas, who, along with President Clinton, was one of eight people to offer reflections on the Jordan's life, praised her fight for civil rights and her often-eloquent celebrations of the United States Constitution by saying of the former Congresswoman and government scholar: "There was simply something about her that made you proud to be a part of the country that produced her."
People started to line up at the church at 5 A.M., and many who were forced to remain outside nonetheless hailed the event as a significant one in their own lives or those of their children. "This is a chance for him to do something historical, a chance to honor someone great in our community," said Delvin Kendrick, a pharmacist, clutching the hand of his 10-year-old son Shantez.
Despite the gathering of mourners and the presence of Ms. Jordan's coffin, the service was described repeatedly as a celebration. The audience dissolved into laughter and cheers when Mayor Bob Lanier of Houston, noting President Clinton's affection for Ms. Jordan, said, "The President must have some attachment for strong women." Mr. Clinton told the audience that he had been nervous enough to be giving a speech on race and the Constitution at the University of Texas last fall, but that he had become even more nervous when he noted Ms. Jordan's presence in the audience. "I think it was the nearest experience on this earth to the pastor giving a sermon with God in the audience."
This is a short clip of part of what Ann Richards had to say about her friend.
(full transcript)
I know that at some point I'm supposed to say that despite all the public acclaim that Barbara was really just like everybody else. But that would be wrong. No matter what else was going on when you were with Barbara you could never quite shake the feeling that you were in the presence of somebody that was truly great. I remember talking to her one time about how she prepared to teach an ethics class at the LBJ school. Ah, before Barbara's classes ethics was not one of those courses that caused students to just stampede to enroll. And, ah, the idea of actually teaching a course in ethics would have given most of us pause. But Barbara said she had done her best to compile a list of everyone across the country that had taught such a course anywhere and then she just wrote to 'em and asked 'em to send her the syllabus, you know. "But," she said, "of course, it was necessary for me to craft one of my own." It was always necessary for Barbara to craft her own. And we thank God for that.
And now, if we're gonna be honest we have to say that there were some people who managed to resist Barbara's persuasive manner. And I've told this story many times but I could not allow this occasion to pass without telling it again. When I was a county commissioner Barbara was building her house out in the country down at the end of a narrow, little, tree shaded lane. It was about a half mile or mile long and there was an old woman who owned some property half way between the road and where Barbara was goin’ to build her house. And she was apparently not thrilled to have Barbara building a house down there. I mean who could tell who might be coming to visit. So, ah, even though the road had been open to the public forever she put a gate across it with a padlock on it. And, it may be hard, ah, to imagine Barbara really hopping mad but she was and she called me up and she said, "Ann, Ann, this old woman has put a gate across my lane and the lane is used by everyone and I want that gate down." Well, it took no small amount of doing but we got the lane designated for county maintenance and we got the gate down. And years later I was going out to the house for a party and I thought about that old woman and so I said to Barbara, "What ever happened to that old woman?" And Barbara suppressed a smile and got that voice of the Lord inflection in her speech an-an she said ah, ah "Well Ann, ah, that old woman died and went to Hell." An that's pretty much how it went with Barbara. If reasoning didn't work and prodding didn't work and the law didn't work divine intervention was bound to just overcome whatever.
People talk about what a private person Barbara was but the American people knew everything they needed to know about her from the moment they met. There was simply something about her that made you proud to be a part of the country that produced her. And she forever redefined what it meant to be a Texan in the eyes of this nation.
If you have never read it, Bill Moyers also offered a powerful tribute to Jordan.
When Max Sherman called me to tell me that Barbara was dying and wanted me to speak at this service, I had been reading a story in that morning’s New York Times about the discovery of forty billion new galaxies deep in the inner sanctum of the universe. Forty billion new galaxies to go with the ten billion we already knew about. As I put the phone down, I thought: it will take an infinite cosmic vista to accommodate a soul this great. The universe has been getting ready for her.
Now, at last, she has an amplifying system equal to that voice. As we gather in her memory, I can imagine the cadences of her eloquence echoing at the speed of light past orbiting planets and pulsars, past black holes and white dwarfs and hundreds of millions of sun-like stars, until the whole cosmic spectrum stretching out to the far fringes of space towards the very origins of time resonates to her presence.
The day after her death, the headline in the Houston Chronicle said: “A voice for justice dies.” And I thought: Not so. The body, yes: “dust to dust and ashes to ashes.” The voice that speaks for justice joins the music of the spheres. What does the universe even know of justice unless informed by a Barbara Jordan? Cock your ear toward the mysterious and invisible matter that shapes the galaxies and sustains their coherence, and you will hear nothing of justice. On matters of meaning and morality, the universe is dumbstruck, the planets silent. Our notions of right and wrong, of how to live together, come from our prophets, not from the planets. It is the human voice that commands justice to roll down “like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
And what a voice this was!
May her voice live on.
Amen.