SHE BROKE THE BARRIER
After half a century, Barbara Jordan still unique to Texas Senate
In the fall of 1966, Barbara Jordan became the first African-American elected to the Texas State Senate, where she served until 1972. Shewent on to become the first African-American from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Agraduate of Texas Southern University and Boston University School of Law, Jordan was a passionate representative of her city and state. She came to national attention when, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, she passionately defended a founding document of the United States, saying: “My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I amnot going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.”
Her powerful testimony is noted as a turning point in the hearings, and secured her the position of keynote speaker at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, the first African-American woman to play such a role.
Jordan’s achievements are all the more noteworthy if you consider that in the 51 years since Jordan’s election, not a single blackwoman has been elected to the Texas State Senate.
To be clear, there are some bright spots on the electoral horizon. Fran Watson, for example, an attorney and community activist, is running to become the second blackwoman to represent a state Senate district in Texas, Houston’s District 17, one of the most diverse districts in the state.
Watson, who counts Jordan as an inspiration, follows closely in her legacy as a blackwoman attorney seeking to change the face of politics.
As she said in a recent interview, her diverse experiences are what make her well-suited to carry out the responsibilities of a representative of the people.
“As someonewho has taken a non-traditional path in various aspects of her life— from education to being a young caretaker to becoming an activist in the community— my ideas and viewpoints come frommy own life experiences, and the belief that government should serve us all,” Watson said.
Her electionwould mark a first in more than half a century of Texas Senate elections.
More and more people in Houston and around the country are coming to know our city as one the most diverse in the nation.
This city of migrants from across the United States has become the country’s fore most city of immigrants from all parts of the globe.
Not only that, but demographic experts say that the Houston metro area, with its increasingly diverse population, is at the forefront of an important shift occurring in American cities.
They are becoming more racially diverse, with higher percentages of immigrant residents and greater numbers of languages spoken.
How then, canwe explain the fact that our city is changing and 1966was the last time that a black woman was elected to a state Senate seat? Why isn’t the diversity of our city accurately or adequately represented in the halls of our state Legislature? Shouldn’t our representatives actually be representative of us?
In 1977, a group ofwomen gathered in Houston to take on similar questions about representation, race
and gender. Voting on a policy platform intended to delineate the political needs of a diverse group ofwomen, the convention presented their recommendations to President Jimmy Carter and Congress in a 1978 report titled “The Spirit of Houston.” Their policy planks included recognizing the needs ofwomen of color, poor women, women who live in rural communities, the problem of rape and sexual assault, sexual orientation and, yes, representation in elective and appointive office.
Thisweek, 40 years later, the University of Houston hosted a two-day conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of that gathering and to pose some of the same questions about race, gender and representation in our city, state and nation.
One that is crucial for our city and our state is the one that Jordan so eloquently articulated: “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 thatwe share a common destiny.”