Barbara Jordan

Book excerpt: A collection of speeches by the much-admired congresswoman on the importance of ethics, the threat of tyranny, faith and politics, and more. Through her career as a Texas senator, US congresswoman, and distinguished professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Barbara Jordan lived by a simple creed: “Ethical behavior means being honest, telling the truth, and doing what you said you were going to do.” Her strong stand for ethics in government, civil liberties, and democratic values still provides a standard around which the nation can unite in the twenty-first century. This volume collects several major speeches that articulate her most deeply held values. They include: “Erosion of Civil Liberties,” a commencement address delivered at Howard University on May 12, 1974, in which Jordan warned that “tyranny in America is possible” “The Constitutional Basis for Impeachment,” Jordan’s ringing defense of the US Constitution before the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate break-in Keynote addresses to the 1976 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions, in which Jordan set forth her vision of the party as an advocate for the common good and catalyst of change Testimony in the U.S. Congress on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and on immigration reform Meditations on faith and politics from two National Prayer Breakfasts Acceptance speech for the 1995 Sylvanus Thayer Award presented by the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy, in which Jordan challenged the military to uphold the values of “duty, honor, country” Accompanying the speeches are context-setting introductions by editor Max Sherman as well as the eloquent eulogy Bill Moyers delivered at Jordan’s memorial service, in which he summed up her remarkable life and career by saying, “Just when we despaired of finding a hero, she showed up.”