She Changed the Nation, page 61
69. Elaine Jones, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 9, story 7. “Elaine Jones recalls lobbying to preserve the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.”
70. Meg Greenfield, Washington (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 103–104.
Chapter 15
1. Walter Shapiro, “What Does This Woman Want?” Texas Monthly (October 1976): 134.
2. Liz Carpenter, “Women Who Could Be President,” Redbook (July 1975). Seven hundred men and women were asked what woman could serve as president; 44 percent named Jordan. Before the Democratic convention in 1976, “she finds herself being promoted as a future House Speaker, a U.S. Senator, a possible vice-presidential candidate, or perhaps, some day, even president.” Houston Chronicle, February 14, 1976, 16. After Jordan was sworn in as “Governor for a Day,” Black Houstonians envisioned her in the Oval Office. See “Barbara Jordan Could Be President,” Forward Times, June 17, 1972. Richard E. Price, “Naming of Black Woman to Supreme Court Urged,” Washington Post, May 26, 1975.
3. “Rep. Barbara Jordan Speaks to 150 at Kirkland House,” October 20, 1978, Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, June–October, 1978, https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616585/m1/7/, accessed November 24, 2023, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.
4. “Barbara Jordan Denies Report She Has Terminal Bone Disease,” Washington Post, quoting the Dallas Morning News, January 19, 1979.
5. Stanley L. McLelland and Jordan were very close, and he often traveled with her. He was an important source for much of the personal information about Jordan for Mary Beth Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero. He died November 20, 2020.
6. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 301–303.
7. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, p. 304.
8. See Joseph Nocera, “The Failure of Barbara Jordan’s Success,” Washington Monthly 11, no 1 (March 1979): 36–46. Nocera bashed Jordan for not living up to her potential, for her self-interest and ambition, and for her modest accomplishments. Charlayne Hunter Gault, “Independent, Pragmatic, and Self-Centered,” Ms. 7, no. 8 (February 1979): 43–44. Alton Hornsby, “Barbara Jordan: A Self Portrait by Barbara Jordan and Shelby Hearon,” Journal of Southern History 36, no. 1 (February 1980): 137–138, gave a slightly less hostile but similarly dismissive review, stating that the book showed Jordan’s “flaws,” including her “naivety,” and compared its “simplistic approach” to a Horatio Alger story.
9. Kaye Northcott, “Without a Doubt,” New York Times, February 18, 1979.
10. See “It Pays to Be a Ghost,” New York Times, March 18, 1979, on the phenomenon of journalists ghostwriting the memoirs of public figures. Hearon was named as a coauthor, but the article cites Barbara Jordan: A Self Portrait as part of a growing trend of books that revealed the private lives of public figures.
11. Author’s interview with Judge Andrew Jefferson, March 27, 2001.
12. Rogers, American Hero, 314–320, describes some of Jordan’s inner circle in Austin.
13. Rogers, American Hero, 350.
14. Tobin Siebers, “Disability as Masquerade,” Literature and Medicine 23, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 1–22, 2–3.
15. Siebers, 2-3.
16. According to Mary Beth Rogers, in addition to Nancy Earl, Jordan trusted Stan McLelland and her LBJ school secretary Sharon Tutchings, “to protect her from anyone who attempted to intrude on her time or life.” She preferred to be with people who were polite, reserved, and discreet. Rogers, American Hero, 318.
17. “Rep. Barbara Jordan Speaks to 150 at Kirkland House,” October 20, 1978, Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, June–October, 1978.
18. Paula Giddings interview with Mario Silva of Gulf Coast Community Services, cited in Paula Giddings, “Will the Real Barbara Jordan Please Stand?” Encore magazine, May 9, 1977, 19.
19. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act#cite_note-Federal_Reserve-3, accessed November 24, 2023, for a history of the act, citing a speech by Ben Bernanke on the intent of the original law: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/Bernanke20070330a.htm, accessed December 4, 2023.
20. Interview with Algenita Scott Davis, July 19, 2006, University of Houston Oral History Project, https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory, accessed November 24, 2023.
21. Interview with Algenita Scott Davis, July 19, 2006, University of Houston Oral History Project, https://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/houhistory, accessed November 24, 2023.
22. When she appeared on the television news show 60 Minutes, Jordan correctly predicted that “Jimmy Carter will be renominated, not reelected.” “The President appears to have some difficulty taking in the reality of a strong woman. . . . The President views women in a subservient or secondary or peripheral kind of a role and not in a central, decisive, intelligent role” (60 Minutes, June 17, 1979).
23. Previously, on the Dick Cavett Show, Jordan had said “our president has a problem with women who think, manage and analyze” (Dick Cavett Show, February 15, 1979).
24. David Remnick, “TV Ads Give Moral Majority PAWs,” Washington Post, June 25, 1981; see https://www.pfaw.org/about-us/, accessed November 24, 2023.
25. David S. Broder, “Democrats: Back from the Dead,” Washington Post, August 23, 1981.
26. For the San Marcos speech, see Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 320–326.
27. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 320–326. Jordan was the only American on the panel; she became friends with esteemed judges and political leaders from Ghana, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and Algeria. After Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Jordan traveled to South Africa and met with him. In 1984 Jordan “electrified” the audience gathered in Washington, DC, for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. She held “Reaganomics” responsible for the nation’s “deepest, darkest,” recession: “I apologize to all the Republicans who may have gotten into this room.” Washington Post, March 3, 1984.
28. Paul Delaney, “The Struggle to Rally Black America,” New York Times, July 15, 1979.
29. Barbara Jordan, “Salute to Black Elected Officials,” Address to the Seventh Annual Dinner, Joint Center for Political Studies, and the Fourth National Policy Institute, Washington, DC, March 2, 1984.
30. “Ex Officials Praise Bork: Others See Him as a Threat,” New York Times, September 22, 1987.
31. Testimony of Barbara Jordan to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Day 6, Hearings on the Nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, September 21, 1987. Transcript from CSPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?10163-1/bork-nomination-day-6-part-1, accessed November 25, 2023.
32. Testimony of Barbara Jordan to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Day 6, Hearings on the Nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, September 21, 1987. Transcript from CSPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?10163-1/bork-nomination-day-6-part-1, accessed November 25, 2023.
33. Testimony of Barbara Jordan to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Day 6, Hearings on the Nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, September 21, 1987.
34. Quoted in Michael Pertschuk, The People Rising: The Campaign against the Bork Nomination (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989,), 269. See Barbara Jordan, “Krauthammer Needs a Lesson on What’s Fair and What’s Foul,” letter to the Washington Post, November 12, 1988.
35. Barbara Jordan, “How Do We Live with Each Other’s Deepest Differences?” remarks, Dayton, Ohio, June 28, 1990, Public Affairs Library, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin, Texas. Quoted in Rogers, Barbara Jordan: America Hero, 330.
36. When she returned home, she went to a gathering at the LBJ ranch for a birthday party for Philip Bobbitt. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 332.
37. “Jordan’s Condition Is Improved,” Washington Post, August 1, 1988.
38. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 335. Jordan defended Democratic attacks on Bush’s campaign. Barbara Jordan, “Krauthammer Needs a Lesson on What’s Fair and What’s Foul.”
39. Several versions of this Liebovitz photo of Jordan can be found online. Liebovitz used many politicians and celebrities in the series. https://www.symmetrykills.com/american-express, accessed December 4, 2023.
40. See Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Seeing the Disabled: Visual Rhetorics of Disability in Popular Photography,” in The New Disability History: American Perspectives, ed. Paul K. Longmore and Lauri Umansky, (New York: NYU Press, 2001), 335–374.
41. Garland-Thomson, “Seeing the Disabled,” 335–374. The photo of Judy Heuman is an official portrait from her work with a federal government agency.
42. Garland-Thomson, “Seeing the Disabled,” 369–370.
43. Nancy Mairs, Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
44. “In both queer and disabled contexts,” Samuels writes, “coming out can entail a variety of meanings, acts, and commitments.” Ellen Samuels, “My Body, My Closet: Invisible Disability and the Limits of Coming Out,” in The Disability Studies Reader, 5th ed., ed. Lennard J. Davis (New York: Routledge, 2017), 343–359, 346–347. See also Marlon B. Ross, “Beyond the Closet as Raceless Paradigm,” in Black Queer Studies, ed. E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005), 161–190.
45. Interview: An Ethical Guru Monitors Morality,” Time Magazine, June 3, 1991, 9–10; Rogers, American Hero, 338–339.
46. “Interview: An Ethical Guru Monitors Morality,” Time Magazine, June 3, 1991, 9–10.
47. In January 2022, the estimate of undocumented citizens nationwide was 11.35 million. See https://cis.org/Report/Estimating-Illegal-Immigrant-Population-Using-Current-Population-Survey, accessed November 25, 2023.
48. “New Voice in Immigration Debate: Former Congresswoman Jordan Expresses Optimism over Policy ‘Furor,” Washington Post, April 13, 1994.
49. See “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan? Our Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You,” This American Life, episode 665, January 11, 2019, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/665/transcript, accessed November 25, 2023.
50. “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan?”
51. Author’s zoom interview with Susan Martin, January 3, 2020.
52. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 343–351, and “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan?”
53. “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan?” Rogers, American Hero, 343–350.
54. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, 351.
55. Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, xvi.
56. Ron Coddington caricature of Barbara Jordan for Tribune News Service, January 1, 1994, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ron-coddington-caricature-of-barbara-jordan-news-photo/168789573, accessed November 25, 2023.
57. Quoted in “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan?”
58. Quoted in “Where Have You Gone Barbara Jordan?”
59. “At Funeral, Praise for Barbara Jordan,” New York Times, January 21, 1996.
60. “Friends Celebrate Home-Going of Former Rep. Barbara Jordan,” Washington Post, January 21, 1996.
61. In order to be buried in the Texas State cemetery, an individual had to have been elected or appointed to state office, or had some connection to state government. Some of the rules have been relaxed, yet the history of disfranchisement and segregation would have made in impossible for Black Texas leaders from the past to be so honored. For the history of the cemetery and qualifications see https://cemetery.tspb.texas.gov/faq.asp, accessed December 4, 2023.
62. Author’s telephone interview with Rufus “Bud” Myers, Jordan’s chief of staff, May 19, 2017.
63. “The Barbara Jordan Statue at UT: A Welcome Return to a Champion of Justice,” Austin Chronicle, April 24, 2009, https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2009-04-24/770404/, accessed November 25, 2023.
64. “Barbara Jordan Statue’s 10-Year Anniversary Commemorated by UT Orange Jackets,” Daily Texan, March 28, 2019, https://thedailytexan.com/2019/03/29/Barbara-jordan-statues-10-year-anniversary-commemorated-by-ut-orange-jackets/, accessed November 25, 2023. Other speakers remarked on Jordan’s importance as a symbol of women’s achievements, multiracial inclusivity, and the fight for civil rights.
65. Austin Chronicle, July 6, 2007, https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2007-07-06/499190/, accessed November 25, 2023.
66. “The Marble Ceiling,” from “The Education of an Able-Bodied Ally,” November 13, 2006, http://disabilityally.blogspot.com/2006/11/marble-ceiling.html, accessed November 25, 2023.
67. Richard Pearson, “Ex-Congresswoman Barbara Jordan Dies,” Washington Post, January 18, 1996. Frances X. Clines, “Barbara Jordan Dies at 59: Her Voice Stirred the Nation,” New York Times, January 18, 1996. Reportedly the Houston Chronicle named Earl as Jordan’s companion. See J. Jennings Moss, “Barbara Jordan: The Other Life—Lesbianism Was a Secret the Former Congresswoman Took to Her Grave,” Advocate, March 5, 1996, 39–44, 44.
68. See, for example, Lisa L. Moore, “Looking Back at Barbara Jordan,” QT Voices, July 7, 2022. QT Voices is the online magazine of the LGBTQ Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Moore is a Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UT Austin where she directs the LGBTQ Studies program. https://notevenpast.org/looking-back-at-barbara-jordan/, accessed December 4, 2023.
69. She reportedly responded, “I was her good friend. I was there morning and night to help her get showered and get dressed and go to work. She had lots of companions. People can say whatever they want. She was a friend of mine. You can write what you want.” J. Jennings Moss, “Barbara Jordan: The Other Life—Lesbianism Was a Secret the Former Congresswoman Took to Her Grave,” Advocate, March 5, 1996, 39–44, 44.
70. Nancy J. Earl, death notice. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/statesman/name/nancy-earl-obituary?id=50134208, accessed December 4, 2023.
71. Emma Balter, “How a Houston Columnist’s Coming Out and Firing Ignited the Community,” Houston Chronicle, October 6, 2022. Quotes from Palomo appeared in Advocate, March 5, 1996.
72. By 1992 AIDS had become the number 1 cause of death for US men ages 25–44. By 1994 AIDS was the leading cause of death for all Americans in this age group. See “AIDS in the 90s, Did You Know?” American Psychological Association Timeline, https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/youth/nineties-timeline#:~:text=The%20Epidemic%20Grows&text=In%201991%2C%20the%20red%20ribbon,ages%2025%2D44%20years%20old, accessed November 21, 2023.
73. J. Jennings Moss, “Barbara Jordan: The Other Life—Lesbianism Was a Secret the Former Congresswoman Took to Her Grave,” Advocate, March 5, 1996, 39–44, 44.
74. See Rosa Maria Pegueros, “Barbara Jordan, E. Bradford Burns and Me: Coming Out in Public Life,” for “Setting Out II: University of Rhode Island Annual Symposium on Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Issues,” April 10–12, 1996, https://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/come_out.html, accessed November 21, 2023.
75. Barbara Smith, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” Radical Teacher 7 (March 1978): 20–27, 26.
76. “Right to Closets,” in off our backs 8, no. 11 (December 1978): 16, emphasis in the original. The race of the author is not clear, but she is writing to show solidarity with a previous letter written by a Black woman.
77. Deborah Gray White, “Mining the Forgotten: Manuscript Sources for Black Women’s History,” Journal of American History 74, no. 1 (June 1987): 237–242, discusses the factors that contribute to the paucity of personal documents among Black women; see Karen Vallgarda, “Introduction: The Politics of Family Secrecy,” Journal of Family History 47, no. 3 (2022): 239–247, citing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 123–151, on balancing, exposing, and protecting a subject’s personal life. For the tensions over sexual secrets and public life, see Erving Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963); James Kirchick, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington (New York: Henry Holt, 2022). For recent biographies of Black women that wrestle with similar questions about secrecy and disclosure, see Shanna Greene Benjamin, Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021); and Imani Perry, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (Boston: Beacon Press, 2019).
78. A new sculpture honoring Jordan in Houston is currently underway. https://glasstire.com/2021/11/10/jamal-cyrus-and-charisse-pearlina-weston-to-collaborate-on-barbara-jordan-monument-in-houston/#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Houston%20Mayor’s,Library%20at%20the%20Gregory%20School., accessed November 25, 2023.
79. “The Marble Ceiling,” in The Education of an Able-Bodied Ally, November 13, 2006. http://disabilityally.blogspot.com/2006/11/marble-ceiling.html, accessed December 4, 2023.
80. Lisa L. Moore, “Looking Back at Barbara Jordan,” QT Voices, July 7, 2022.
81. Dr. Rambie Briggs, quoted in Rogers, Barbara Jordan: American Hero, xvi and 354.
Conclusion
1. In The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement, political scientist Richard Valelly has traced the links between the 1975 provisions and the subsequent 1982 reauthorization, along with the court’s subsequent rulings upholding Section 5’s oversight of election procedures. Matt Stiles, “Clinton Wins Texas but Obama Takes Harris County,” Houston Chronicle, March 8, 2008, noted the overwhelming turnout in Houston: “A record number of local voters cast nearly 406,000 votes for Democrats with more than 56 percent choosing Obama.” This article reported on the results of the primary election. In follow-up Texas caucuses (a combined primary process known as the “Texas Two-Step”), Obama emerged as the overall victor in Texas. See “2008 Texas Presidential Primary and Caucuses,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Texas_Democratic_presidential_primary_and_caucuses#:~:text=The%20contest%20between%20the%20two,more%20support%20in%20the%20caucuses, accessed December 4, 2023. For results in other southern states, see Mary Ellen Curtin and Matthew Dallek, “On Voting Rights, the Court Finds Consensus: Behind the Act That Helped Elect Obama,” Atlantic (June 2009).
