In 1976 Barbara Jordan became the first African American to give a keynote address to the Democratic National Convention. After retiring from Congress, she taught at the University of Texas at Austin. The passenger terminal at Austin's international airport is named in honor of Barbara Jordan.
Selected Barbara Jordan Quotations
• The American dream is not dead. It is gasping for breath, but it is not dead.
• I never intended to become a run-of-the-mill person.
• A spirit of harmony can only survive if each of us remembers, when bitterness and self-interest seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny.
• One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
• If you're going to play the game properly you'd better know every rule.
• If you are politically inclined, you may be President of the United States. All my growth and development led me to believe that if you really do the right thing, and if you play by the rules, and if you’ve got good enough, solid judgment and common sense, that you’re going to be able to do whatever you want to do with your life.
• "We the people" -- it is a very eloquent beginning. But when the Constitution of the United States was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that "We the people." I felt for many years that somehow George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in "We the People."
• We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic, but we can find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny. (from her 1976 speech at the Democratic National Convention
• Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.
• We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
• If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
• The imperative is to define what is right and do it.
• What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.
• Justice of right is always to take precedence over might.
