This continues my series celebrating October as disability awareness month in the state of Texas by proclamation of the governor's office. During this month I will be providing factoids released by the governor's office and other sources about Texans with disabilities.
Barbara Jordan became the first African-American to serve in the Texas Senate since 1883, when she was elected in 1967 and in 1972 she was elected President Pro Tempore. At the same time while discharging her duties, she coped routinely with the challenges presented by multiple sclerosis.
Accoding to the governor's office, Barbara Jordan was known for her passionately speeches on a variety of subjects. In 1973, she became the first African-American woman from a Southern state to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jordan delivered the keynote addresses at the 1976 and 1992 Democratic Conventions, emphasizing unity, equality, accountability, and American ideals. Retiring from Congress in 1979, she became a professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and became known as an outstanding educator. She is in the National Women's Hall of Fame and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.
In 1982, the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities created the Barbara Jordan Media Awards which recognizes representatives of the communications media in the fields of print, radio, television, Internet, advertising, photojournalism, public relations, books, and special contributions for increasing public understanding of the abilities and potential of people with disabilities.
Barbara Jordan Media Awards: http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/awards/barbara_jordan_media_awards/
Clips of Barbara Jordan can be seen in the "The Scoop on Reporting about People with Disabilities:" http://governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/awards/scoop
For more on Barbara Jordan: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fjoas
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