THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The flag is flying at half staff over the Texas Statehouse to honor Barbara Jordan. When she first arrived there more than a quarter-century ago, they had to install a ladies room to accommodate her. She was the first.
Her life was a series of firsts, but the real legacy of the former congresswoman who died at 59 this week may be that she was among the last of her kind. Jordan was a better-angels-of-our-nature politician. That's a rarity today, when so many in public life seem to think the worst of people and appeal to their baser instincts.
Jordan was an idealist, albeit a pragmatic and hardheaded one. At a time of great national division, the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon, she reminded the nation that the topic under discussion wasn't just politics but the rule of law.
In a voice baritones envied, she expressed in rolling cadences and organ-stop tones her complete faith in the Constitution that authorized and had envisioned the process upon which the nation was engaged.
Similarly, in times of racial disunity, Jordan expressed her belief in harmony. At a time of growing separatism, she spoke up for pluralism. She had reason to have faith, from the events of her own life. They suggested that talent, given opportunity, will make its way.
As a junior at an obscure Texas college, she led her debate team to a national championship where it defeated Harvard. When she received a law degree, job offers were scarce. When she volunteered at her local party headquarters, she was put to work stuffing envelopes. But on her third try, she won political office. and by her 30s, she was keynote speaker at her party's national convention.
Jordan retired early from public life to teach. She suffered a series of health setbacks but never lost heart. She kept the faith that she had helped instill in so many of her countrymen - in the need for freedom of opportunity, in the Constitution that made it possible and in the better angels of our nature. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MS. JORDAN
by CNB