Barbara Jordan

CTL-E-6247 · Person · politician · 1936–1996

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07440 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6247.

Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator, and Democratic politician born in Houston, Texas, on February 21, 1936. She graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School in 1952, earned a B.A. from Texas Southern University in 1956, and received her law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1959. Admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bars that year, she began practicing law in Houston in 1960. Elected to the Texas Senate in 1966, she served from 1967 to 1972 as the first Black woman in that body and the first African American elected to it since Reconstruction. In 1972 she won a Houston-based seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and she served in the 93rd, 94th, and 95th Congresses, from January 3, 1973, to January 3, 1979. As a freshman representative she sat on the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment investigation of President Richard M. Nixon, and her opening statement on the constitutional gravity of the process made her a national figure; the committee passed three articles of impeachment. After Congress she taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. She died in Austin on January 17, 1996.

The record

• Also known as: Barbara Charline Jordan

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Barbara Jordan entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). Name collisions hand-resolved: Karen Jordan and other Jordan records in the graph are different people. ID CTL-E-6247 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #2712. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American congresswoman from Houston's Black community whose Texas Senate first and whose Judiciary Committee role in the Nixon impeachment inquiry are central facts of post-Voting Rights Act Black political history. Vital status: DECEASED — died January 17, 1996, in Austin, Texas (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; U.S. House History, both accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Service dates, Biographical Directory (accessed 2026-10-16): Texas Senate 1967–1972; U.S. House, 93rd–95th Congresses, January 3, 1973–January 3, 1979; LBJ School professor 1979–1982, Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair 1982–1986. The House History page (accessed 2026-10-16) records that the Judiciary Committee passed three articles of impeachment. Election-versus-service dating is kept distinct: she was elected in 1966 and 1972 and took her seats the following Januaries. MEDIA: photo HELD (HELD — candidate: the Barbara Jordan Collection television photograph of Judiciary Committee proceedings held by Texas Christian University and carried on the U.S. House History page; no file page was read at file level and NO license is claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred. — named candidate only; file-level rights verification per CTL-PHOTO-001 still required; no license claimed); chart per media_spec (coordinator builds the CTL chart from this record's sourced facts); video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by name and variants, 2026-10-16); no near-miss title found.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (person record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (No rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged; audio slot held pending a CTL-PHOTO-001-consistent rights basi)

Relationships

• Houston, Texas — from
  Jordan was born in Houston, Texas (CTL-E-4155), on February 21, 1936, and first practiced law and won office there; from runs Person→Locality per the schema matrix.

Sources

• U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives, Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas (accessed 2026-10-16) — first Black woman in the Texas state senate; won a Houston-based U.S. House seat in 1972; with Andrew Young the first African Americans elected from the Deep South since Reconstruction; served 1973–1979; freshman on the Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment investigation; committee passed three articles of impeachment — https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/Representative-Barbara-Jordan-of-Texas/ (primary source · build store)
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Barbara Charline Jordan (via FactMonster) (accessed 2026-10-16) — born Houston, Feb. 21, 1936; Wheatley High School 1952; B.A. Texas Southern University 1956; LL.B. Boston University 1959; bars 1959, practice Houston 1960; Texas Senate 1967–1972; U.S. House Jan. 3, 1973–Jan. 3, 1979; LBJ School professor 1979–1982 and Centennial Chair 1982–1986; chair, Commission on Immigration Reform; died Austin, Jan. 17, 1996; interment Texas State Cemetery — https://www.factmonster.com/people/us-congress-biography/barbara-charline-jordan-tx (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6247 · Combined Graph record U-07440 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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