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HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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WHEREAS, A towering figure in the Texas Legislature and the |
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United States Congress, Houston native Barbara Jordan blazed a |
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remarkable trail on the national stage for other women and people of |
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color; and |
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WHEREAS, Barbara Charline Jordan was born in 1936 and |
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graduated from Texas Southern University and Boston University |
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School of Law; in 1966, she became the first African American woman |
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elected to the Texas Senate, and she pushed through bills |
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establishing antidiscrimination clauses in business contracts, the |
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Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission, and the state's first |
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minimum wage law; recognizing her wisdom and skill, her peers chose |
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her as president pro tempore; and |
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WHEREAS, Barbara Jordan continued her work to advance social |
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progress after winning election to the U.S. House of |
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Representatives in 1972, when she became the first African American |
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woman from the Deep South to be elected to Congress; as a member of |
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the Judiciary Committee, she galvanized the nation during the |
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Watergate hearings, signaling the historic weight of the |
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proceedings as she thundered, "My faith in the Constitution is |
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whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be |
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an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the |
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destruction of the Constitution"; and |
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WHEREAS, Following her third term in the house, Congresswoman |
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Jordan retired from politics to take up the Lyndon Johnson Chair in |
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National Policy at The University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of |
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Public Affairs; she inspired the next generation of leaders by |
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teaching courses on intergovernmental relations, political values, |
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and ethics, and she served as ethics advisor to then-governor Ann |
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Richards; appointed chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration |
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Reform, she again emerged as a key supporter of the framers' intent |
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in 1994 when she powerfully decried a proposal to end the |
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constitutional provision of birthright citizenship; and |
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WHEREAS, Barbara Jordan passed away in 1996, but the |
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magisterial voice she lifted as a champion of the vulnerable and |
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disenfranchised and as a defender of the constitution continues to |
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resonate, and naming a new building in the Capitol Complex in her |
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honor would provide a fitting tribute to her enormous legacy; now, |
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therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas |
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hereby direct the Texas Facilities Commission to name the building |
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being constructed on the east side of North Congress Avenue between |
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16th and 17th Streets the Barbara Jordan Building in recognition of |
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her contributions to our state and nation; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official |
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copy of this resolution to the chair and to the executive director |
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of the Texas Facilities Commission. |
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