87R486 BPG-D
 
  By: Cole, Rose, Turner of Tarrant, et al. H.C.R. No. 5
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, A towering figure in the Texas Legislature and the
  United States Congress, Houston native Barbara Jordan blazed a
  remarkable trail on the national stage for other women and people of
  color; and
         WHEREAS, Barbara Charline Jordan was born in 1936 and
  graduated from Texas Southern University and Boston University
  School of Law; in 1966, she became the first African American woman
  elected to the Texas Senate, and she pushed through bills
  establishing antidiscrimination clauses in business contracts, the
  Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission, and the state's first
  minimum wage law; recognizing her wisdom and skill, her peers chose
  her as president pro tempore; and
         WHEREAS, Barbara Jordan continued her work to advance social
  progress after winning election to the U.S. House of
  Representatives in 1972, when she became the first African American
  woman from the Deep South to be elected to Congress; as a member of
  the Judiciary Committee, she galvanized the nation during the
  Watergate hearings, signaling the historic weight of the
  proceedings as she thundered, "My faith in the Constitution is
  whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be
  an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the
  destruction of the Constitution"; and
         WHEREAS, Following her third term in the house, Congresswoman
  Jordan retired from politics to take up the Lyndon Johnson Chair in
  National Policy at The University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of
  Public Affairs; she inspired the next generation of leaders by
  teaching courses on intergovernmental relations, political values,
  and ethics, and she served as ethics advisor to then-governor Ann
  Richards; appointed chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration
  Reform, she again emerged as a key supporter of the framers' intent
  in 1994 when she powerfully decried a proposal to end the
  constitutional provision of birthright citizenship; and
         WHEREAS, Barbara Jordan passed away in 1996, but the
  magisterial voice she lifted as a champion of the vulnerable and
  disenfranchised and as a defender of the constitution continues to
  resonate, and naming a new building in the Capitol Complex in her
  honor would provide a fitting tribute to her enormous legacy; now,
  therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby direct the Texas Facilities Commission to name the building
  being constructed on the east side of North Congress Avenue between
  16th and 17th Streets the Barbara Jordan Building in recognition of
  her contributions to our state and nation; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official
  copy of this resolution to the chair and to the executive director
  of the Texas Facilities Commission.