BARBARA JORDAN SIGNED A Self Portrait African American Texas U. S. Senator

BARBARA JORDAN: A SELF-PORTRAIT Jordan, Barbara and Shelby Hearon Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc. SIGNED / INSCRIBED by BARBARA JORDAN on front endpaper. Cloth backed boards hardcover in dust jacket with edge tears (see photos) else intact with price present front flap; 269 pages with photos. The Texas Congresswoman describes her childhood in Houston, her years in segregated schools, her entry into the white world while attending Boston University Law School, and her breakthrough into politics.

Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 - January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives, and one of the first two African Americans elected to the U.

House from the former Confederacy since 1901, alongside Andrew Young of Georgia. Jordan achieved notoriety for delivering a powerful opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.

In 1976, she became the first African-American, and the first woman, to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.

Jordan is also known for her work as chair of the U.