[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974] Page: 149 of 236
This book is part of the collection entitled: The Barbara C. Jordan Archives and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas Southern University.
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DETROIT NEWS
August 25, 1974
Black Rose' of Texas
Not Awed by Historic RoleBy KAREN PETERSON
News Feature Service
There are still some people
in Houston who call her a "big
'ole lovable girl'" Some still
go to sing-alongs' with her
when she's home, and bike
ride on a favorable day.
Once, she even played a little
cards with a Houston report-
er, although as a strict Bap-
tist she doesn't know her way
around a poker table.
But this is not the public
image of Barbara Jordan, the
Democratic representative
from Texas' Eighteenth Con-
gressional District.
To the public she is a
barrier-buster, massive in
mind and body. Barbara Jor-
dan is an intellect who thinks
few puny thoughts. She has
been called the "best legal
mind on the House Judiciary
Committee" by certain copy-
hungry reporters.
Speaker of the House Carl
Albert says she might have
his own job someday. She
laughs, a rare occurrence,
and says, "I suppose I might,
if I hang around here for
another 50 years."
She hasn't missed the irony
of her position - the daugh-
ter of a black Baptist preach-
er, the product of a black
Southern low-income area,
who sat in judgement of a
President.
As she is want to do, she
>hrases the situation careful-
y and gracefully, "The Con-
titution was not designed to
york for Blacks; they were
iot counted as a part of the
:ountry. But through the
processs of amendment, inter-
pretation and court decision
Blacks have been included in
the Constitutional phrase,
'We, the people ...
Blacks and the poor are her
constitutents, and she is pas-
sionate in her concern for
them. Interviewed during the
recent historic presidential
days, she said: "Gerald Ford
has never really had an op-
portunity to relate to the total
black populace. His record on
civil rights legislation as
Minority Leader was disap-
pointing.black rose of Texas once said,
"I never intended to become
a run-of-the-mill person."
Instead she became the
"one-and-only." The phrase
"the-first-to-be" is practical-
ly part of her name.
She is the only woman ever
elected to the Texas Senate;
the first Black in that body
since 1882; its first woman
and Black ever to serve as its
President Pro Tempore; the
first Black ever to serve as
Governor of Texas (for a
day), and, of course, the first
female and first Black sent
from Texas to Congress.
A product of the "New
South," Ms. Jordan nowadays
gets some Fat Cat money,
gets honorary degrees, has a
"Barbara Jordan Day" in
Houston. She is big political
box office. Nobody is stupid
nough to throw brickbats at
the no-make-up, no-nonsense
female.
T'weren't always necessari-
ly so. Not everyone in the
Texas State Senate sang her
praises for her six years
there. Political rivals accused
her of selling out her liberal
ideas in order to get bills
passed, even weak ones. (She
did influence the passage of
the state's first minimum
wage bill.) She says today, "I
don't hear that from people
anymore. I think they have
come to understand my way
of doing things, the way I
work, Now, they're telling me
I was right all along."
Ms. Jordan didn't get this
far by being "lovable." She
won not love, but respect,
through sheer intellect and
competence and force of per-
sonality. She has always done
her homework, as she demon-
strated in her eloquent state-.
ment to the Judiciary Com-
mittee July 25th, citing vari-
ous definitions of impeach-
ment.led to some charges of ego-
tism. But she is a centered
self, rather than self-
centered. She comments, "I
am pleased with myself in
the sense that I am pleased
with my work, but not in any
conceited or 'superior' way."
Nobody has ever accused
Ms. Jordan of being shy. She
passed on this story to a Tex-
as gathering recently. "I told
the Democratic Bigwigs I
wanted to attend their Wed-
nesday luncheon sessions.
They said a woman had never
been inside. But they let me
in because they couldn't
stand the spectre of a Bar-
bara Jordan standing in the
door every Wednesday yelling
'Let me in! Let me in!"
Ms. Jordan doesn't speak
much about the feminist
movement, but says she re-
presents her constituents who
are "all kinds of people." In
fact, she ran in a district she
helped create while she was
in the Texas State Senate and
won it handily with 81 per
cent of the vote.
She says she has faced
prejudice as both a female
and as a black, but adds, "I
didn't focus on that. You just
do a little more. It's not im-
possible." And to the many
students she addresses, she
says, "Don't talk about bl.ick
power or green power. Talk
about brain power."
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[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - September, 1974], book, 1974; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616583/m1/149/?q=Barbara+Jordan: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.