U.S. Congresswoman. She served as a Democrat in the United States Congress representing the Texas 18th District, from 1973 to 1979. Breaking with a long-time tradition following the American Civil War, she was one of the first African-Americans to be elected to this office from the Deep South since the Reconstruction Era and she was the first female. Born Barbara Charline Jordan, her father was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, who became a worker in a local warehouse before becoming pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Her maternal great grandfather, Edward Patton, served in the Texas House of Representatives as a Republican from January 13, 1891 to January 10, 1893. After attending segregated public schools, she graduated magna cum laude with a BA from a historically African-American institution, Texas Southern University, in 1956 and a law degree from Boston University in 1959 before being admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bar. She taught at Tuskegee Institute for a year. In 1960 she developed a political interest, working for Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy's campaign. After being an unsuccessful candidate for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964, she was elected to be a member of the Texas State Senate in 1967. During this term, she supported the state's first minimum wage law, anti-discrimination clauses in business contracts, and the Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission. With reconstructing of voter's districts, she ran as a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. While serving in Congress, she sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. With the high media coverage, Jordan's reputation as a respected national politician was created. She was the chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. With a decline in her health, she refused to run for her fourth term in Congress. Retiring from politics in 1979, she returned to education, becoming an adjunct professor teaching ethics at the University of Texas. As an elegant speaker, she became the first woman and the first African-American keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention in 1976, speaking again in 1988 and 1992. In 1992, her keynote address was delivered from a wheelchair as she was battling with multiple sclerosis. In 1990, she was named to the National Women's Hall of Fame and received dozens of honorary degrees from various colleges. She was the recipient of the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1992 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. She died from pneumonia that was a complication of leukemia. She never married. She was the first African-American to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery, the final resting place for many prominent Texans.