<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="26.8">Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936-January 17, 1996) became the first African-American elected to the Texas Senate since 1883.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="8.1">Born in Houston, Texas's Fifth Ward, she did not like being passive in Texas politics.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="19.2">In 1952, she graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="20.1">She would then graduate as Magna Cum from Texas Southern University in 1956.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="21.4">She then graduated from Boston University Law School in 1959.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="22.8">She lost her race to the Texas House of Representatives in 1962, and she lost again in 1964 for the race to the legislature.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="18.6">Her persistence got her a seat in the state senate in 1966, becoming the first African-American senator since the Reconstruction.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="6.6">She had extensive support from Lyndon B. Johnson, the President of the United States at the time.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="24.2">She got a second term in the senate in 1968.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="20.2">Her Governor-for-a-day act in 1972 won her the title of being the first African-American woman to head a state government.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="18.5">She would be elected to the United States House of Representatives in the same year.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="14.3">In 1973, she started to suffer from a neurological impairment.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="19.0">This would eventually confine her to a wheelchair.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="21.1">In 1974, she made a well known speech against Richard Nixon, and she got a second term in the House.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="22.8">She made a speech at the 1976 Democratic National Convention and won a third term in the House.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="4.7">She retired from politics in 1979 and became a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a speaker at subsequent Democratic national conventions.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="18.7">She would win the President Medal of Freedom before her death .</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="26.6">External linkshttp://www.rice.edu/armadillo/Texas/chronology.html</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="31.7">http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/jordan.html</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="31.7">Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jordan"</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="31.7">Categories: 1936 births | 1996 deaths | Texans</MPQA>