[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - October, 1970] Page: 97 of 104

                                
Senator

AUSTIN AMERICAN
OCTOBER 30, 1970
Negros Told
Democrats
Best Hope
By DAN WEST
Staff Writer
State Sen. Barbara Jordan of
Houston told a predominantly
black rally for the Democratic
standard  bearers  in  Austin
Thursday night that Nov. 3 was
their chance to reseat the party
that has historically represented
the needs of the Negro people.
Following a presentation of
state   representatives,  Mrs.
Jordan           told       a
standing-room-only crowd at the
Rosewood Baptist Church, to
"Keep in mind next Tuesday the
words unity, peace, freedom
and human dignity. . . then ask
yourselves  if  you  think  a
Republican is the vehicle to
these ends."
The first Negro secretary of
the  State  Democratic  Party
Convention,    Mrs.    Jordan
warned the voters not to look at
the election as carrying merely!
state consequences.
"If this were the case," she
said, "how can we justify the
President and vice president
coming to our state in support
of the Republican candidates."
Losing   highly -placed
Democratic   officials  in  the
upcoming   election, she  said,
would greatly diminish party
hopes in the 1972 elections.
The senator told an approving
crowd that "although in Spiro,
Agnew there is cause for fear"'
- fear should not be the reason,
for   a   strong  Democratic'
turnout.
Rather, she said, the vote
should go to the Democratic
camp in respect for the long
heritage of equal opportunity
and economic self-determination
it has offered the peoples of
Texas    and   the    country,
"regardless of their color or
whether thei hair is straight or
kinky."

Thursday
State Sen. Barbara Jordan of
Houston is scheduled to be the
special guest speaker  at a
public Democratic rally here
Thursday, it was reported.
The rally will be in the
Rosewood    Avenue    Baptist
church starting at 8 p.m.
In September, Senator Jordan
was    unanimously    elected
Secretary   of    the   State
Democratic Party Convention, SE
the first Negro ever to be
elected as an officer of the
Convention.

N. BARBARA JORDAN
To be guest speaker

AUSTIN AMERICAN
OCTOBER 28, 1970

"Today Texas is the number
one state in the country in
attracting new industry," she
said, "and yet Texas is number
one in numbers of poor. I
submit the Democratic party is
the one to provide the gap
;between these inequities, the
one to spread the abundance."
"If   you're   thinking
Republican,"  she  went  on,
"when can you remember a
President of 22 months who has
sent the unemployment rate up
to 512 per cent. . . to over two
million people out of work?"
Many of these people stricken
by unemployment are black,
she said, many are brown and
most are unskilled.
"We are not the party to tell
you 'problems don't exist',"
Mrs. Jordan said, "we readily
admit problems on both a stat
and national level, but we ar
the party which offers you th
hope and faith that there ar
solutions and that we may soorn
rediscover the way to love on
another."