IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 90 
Recognizing the 75th birthday of the Honorable Barbara Charline Jordan, 
American politician, leader of the Civil Rights movement, first African- 
American elected to the Texas Senate, first Southern Black woman 
ever elected to the United States House of Representatives, inspirational 
figure in the Progressive movement, and recipient of the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom Award. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas (for herself, Mr. HALL, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. SAM 
JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. RANGEL, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of 
Texas, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. THOMPSON 
of Mississippi, Ms. FUDGE, Ms. RICHARDSON, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, 
Ms. MOORE, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. 
WAXMAN, Mr. WEINER, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. DINGELL, Mr. DOGGETT, and 
Mr. BUTTERFIELD) submitted the following resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on House Administration 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the 75th birthday of the Honorable Barbara 
Charline Jordan, American politician, leader of the Civil 
Rights movement, first African-American elected to the 
Texas Senate, first Southern Black woman ever elected 
to the United States House of Representatives, inspira-
tional figure in the Progressive movement, and recipient 
of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award. 
Whereas Barbara Charline Jordan was born on February 21, 
1936, in Houston, Texas; 
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•HRES 90 IH 
Whereas Barbara Charline Jordan was a United States poli-
tician elected as the first African-American to the Texas 
Senate after reconstruction and the first Southern Afri-
can-American woman ever elected to the United States 
House of Representatives, representing the 18th District 
of Texas; 
Whereas in 1972, Barbara Charline Jordan served with dis-
tinction on the Committee on the Judiciary of the House 
of Representatives; 
Whereas Barbara Charline Jordan was and still remains an 
inspirational figure in United States politics through her 
powerful public speaking and her triumphant refusal to 
be defined by disability; 
Whereas Barbara Charline Jordan became the voice of inspi-
ration during a time of a national challenge and called 
for integrity from United States leadership, stating be-
fore the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
Representatives that ‘‘common sense would be revolted if 
we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. Pettiness 
cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such over-
whelming problems. So today we are not petty. We are 
trying to be big, because the task we have before us is 
a big one.’’; 
Whereas in 1975, a leading national magazine surveyed 700 
political opinion leaders who ranked Barbara Charline 
Jordan at the top of a list of women they would like to 
see become President of the United States; 
Whereas in 1976, Barbara Charline Jordan was mentioned as 
a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter, and that same 
year became the first African-American woman to deliver 
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the keynote address at the Democratic National Conven-
tion; 
Whereas despite not being a candidate, Barbara Charline 
Jordan received one delegate vote for President at the 
convention; 
Whereas in the summer of 1976, Barbara Charline Jordan’s 
speech in New York was ranked fifth in the ‘‘Top 100 
American Speeches of the 20th Century’’ list and is con-
sidered by many historians to be the best convention key-
note speech in modern history; 
Whereas in 1979, Barbara Charline Jordan left Congress to 
join the faculty of the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of 
Public Policy at the University of Texas, where she held 
the endowed Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in Na-
tional Policy; 
Whereas in 1993, Barbara Charline Jordan received the Eliz-
abeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith 
Colleges; 
Whereas in 1994, Barbara Charline Jordan was awarded the 
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President William Jef-
ferson Clinton for being ‘‘the most outspoken moral voice 
of the American political system’’, adding to her other 
prestigious honors, namely, the Texas and National 
Women’s Halls of Fame and the United States Military 
Academy’s Sylvanus Thayer Award; 
Whereas today, the main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom Inter-
national Airport is named after her, as are an elementary 
school in Odessa, Texas, a middle school in Cibolo, 
Texas, Barbara Jordan High School in Houston, Texas, 
a YMCA in Martinsville, Indiana, and a United States 
Postal Service facility in Houston, Texas; and 
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Whereas Barbara Charline Jordan’s papers are held at the 
Barbara Jordan Archives at Texas Southern University, 
and her speeches are collected in a 2007 publication from 
the University of Texas Press entitled, ‘‘Barbara Jordan: 
Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder’’: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives cele-
brates and honors the continuing legacy of the late Honor-
able Barbara Charline Jordan, on the occasion of the 75th 
anniversary of her birth, to allow the memory of her re-
sounding voice to continue to speak the truth with elo-
quent thunder. 
Æ 
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