KU News Release

Dole Institute celebrates Black History Month with program on Barbara Jordan

LAWRENCE — Max Sherman, professor emeritus and former dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, will be at the Dole Institute of Politics to discuss the life of his friend and colleague Barbara Jordan, the first African-American elected to a Senate seat in the state of Texas since 1883.

The program will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, at the Dole Institute. A book signing will follow.

“In celebration of Black History Month, the Dole Institute is commemorating the life of one of the most influential African-American women politicians in history,” said Barbara Ballard, associate director for outreach at the institute.

Sherman is the editor of a collection of Jordan’s most memorable speeches, “Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder.”

In 1966, Jordan became the first African-American elected to a Senate seat in Texas since 1883 and the first African-American woman to serve in the Texas Senate. After being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972, she gained a position on the House Judiciary Committee with the support of President Lyndon Johnson.

Jordan is remembered for her oratory skills, delivering her most famous speech in 1976 as the first African-American woman to give the keynote at the Democratic National Convention.

After retiring from politics, Jordan became a professor at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She died in 1996. Sherman was Jordan’s friend and colleague for more than 25 years, first in the Texas Senate and later at the University of Texas.

“The institute is honored to celebrate the life of Barbara Jordan for Black History Month,” said Ballard. “This program featuring this extraordinary African-American also complements the institute’s presidential lecture series on Abraham Lincoln.”

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