Barbara Jordan Cause Of Death: How Did Barbara Jordan Die?

Barbara Jordan, an American lawyer, educator, and politician died from viral pneumonia as a complication of leukemia, in her home state of Texas, in the year 1996.

Born on February 21, 1936, Jordan was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and a Democrat.

Jordan attended Houston’s segregated public schools and graduated magna cum laude with debating honors from the all-black Texas Southern University.

She later received a law degree in 1959 from Boston University and was soon at practice from her family’s dining-room table.

She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.

Upon retirement from the House in 1979 after three terms to teach political ethics at the university’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, never losing her potent talent for public speaking even from the confines of a wheelchair.

Jordan is known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon.

In 1976, she became the first African-American, and the first woman, to ever deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.