On July 13, 1992, US Rep. Barbara Jordan
gave a keynote address on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
(Jordan) was raised in Houston and attended Phillis Wheatley High School in the Fifth Ward. She had a gift for public speaking and was a champion debater in high school. She graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1959, and six years later she won a seat in the Texas Senate, becoming the first black woman to do so.
In 1972, she was elected as pro tempore by her peers, which meant she would serve as governor if both the governor and the lieutenant governor were out of state. On June 10, 1972, she was actually the governor of Texas.
After she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she was known as an effective legislator. She gave the opening televised remarks demanding the impeachment of President Nixon and blew away constituents with her eloquent reasoning and influential speech.
And again, Barbara Jordan made history becoming the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Sadly, two years after she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in ’94, Jordan passed away after a long battle with leukemia.
The Texas Progressive Alliance doffs its collective hat to the legacy of a true progressive in bringing you the best lefty blog posts from last week.
Off the Kuff notes the first appearance of lawyers bound and determined to help a few recalcitrant county clerks deny marriage licenses to same sex couples in Texas.
Horwitz at
Texpatriate says
farewell as he enters the next chapter of his life.
Lightseeker at
Texas Kaos exposes Rick Perry and Greg Abbott's myth that tort reform ensures more public access to affordable healthcare. In GOP Texas tort reform means insurance companies and corporations are the winners while real people pay the price.
Abbott and Perry: Tort Reform as a Trojan Horse.
SocraticGadfly discusses the decline and fall of Walmart,
especially in small towns and rural areas.
Should Sen. Bernie Sanders ultimately be eliminated from contention for the Democratic nomination,
what's the best choice for progressives moving forward, PDiddie at
Brains and Eggs asks.
CouldBeTrue of
South Texas Chisme wants everyone to know that
Jeb Bush's son is following the GOP anti-environment playbook in ploy to kill songbirds. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
Neil at
All People Have Value posted a number of interesting pictures from his trip this past week to beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. APHV is part of
NeilAquino.com.
2012 saw the Republican Party lose the
presidency once again, mostly because of their complete refusal to learn from their mistakes, and evolve. As we inch closer to 2016,
Texas Leftist is left to wonder if the GOP learned anything from the last cycle. Given the dominance of
media harlot Donald Trump, the answer is a likely "no".
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
Prairie Weather doesn't consider it very presidential that a former president took a large speaking fee from a disabled veterans' group.
Texas Election Law Blog celebrates its second birthday.
As their staff exits en masse, the
Texas Observer asks: whither Battleground Texas.
Gilbert Garcia takes note of state Sen. Donna Campbell's Alamo histrionics that is fueling the World Heritage truther paranoia that the UN is taking over Texas' most sacred shrine.
Mike Tolson hears the echoes of
Loving v. Virginia in the arguments made by same-sex marriage opponents.
Paradise in Hell counts down the last days of freedom in Bastrop until the inevitable Obama/UN takeover of Texas.
Charlotte Coyle confesses her reluctant patriotism.
jobsanger posits that Nikki Haley might be the GOP's antidote for Donald Trump.
Texas Clean Air Matters envisions Houston as a leader in zero-emission cargo transport technologies.
Better Texas Blog celebrates beautiful, messy democracy.
Grits for Breakfast analyzes Rick Perry's speech on race relations and criminal justice reform in the context of his time as governor.
Carol Morgan says it's time to stop asking (petitioning, calling) our lawmakers and to start making demands of them.
And
Facist Dyke Motors has a short story entitled "Castle Katy and the Flying Buttresses".