She won. Barbara Jordan became the first black person to serve in the Texas Senate since eighteen eighty-three.

VOA: special.2010.05.09

Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas.

VOA: special.2010.05.09

The Watergate hearings that led to President Nixon's resignation made Barbara Jordan known around the nation.

VOA: special.2010.05.09

Rep. Barbara Jordan also spoke to this issue in that tense hearing room on July 25, 1974.

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The two-hour play asks the audience to know some American history and be aware of such figures as the politician Barbara Jordan, Richards' press aide Bill Cryer and the death row inmate Johnny Frank Garrett. (Rob Lowe's sex tape also gets a nod.) One of biggest rounds of applause is heard for Richards' defense of her concealed weapons veto, which has resonance now.

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