The Inquisitor (2025) Movie Script
1
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[Barbara] What the people want
is very simple.
They want an America
as good as its promise.
[inspirational music playing]
[Ann] When you were
with Barbara,
you could never quite shake
the feeling
that you were in the presence
of somebody
that was truly great.
[crowd cheering in background]
[Brenda] Barbara Jordan
blazed a trail.
She was the first black woman
to serve
in the Texas State Senate.
The first black woman
elected to Congress
from the deep South.
Barbara Jordan
was a champion of our freedom,
our Constitution, and our laws.
[Woman 1] She could walk into
all white male spaces
and be respected.
[Max] She reached
into the heart of people
whose hearts didn't want
to be reached into.
[Woman 2] She was someone
who was respected
across party lines.
When Barbara Jordan spoke,
you just sat up and listened.
We are trying to spark
the consciousness in depth
of everybody in this country
and we feel that we have
the capacity to do it.
[Dan] Barbara Jordan's got
the voice of God.
[Barbara] When people are
eroding the foundation
of the country, don't be silent.
Don't be quiet.
[Woman 3] I see the conviction
and honesty that she had,
something that is absent
from politics today.
I think this mood
that we're in now is cyclical.
I think people
are basically good,
and honest, and that they care,
and I think we will return
to that posture.
[Dan] She carried the fire.
She carried the flame
at a very critical time
in American history.
Today I am an inquisitor.
My faith in the Constitution
is whole,
it is complete, it is total.
And I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator
to the diminution,
the subversion,
the destruction
of the Constitution.
[]
[uplifting music playing]
[]
It would be difficult
to understand and recognize
from where Barbara Jordan came
to what she became.
It's a great story.
It's a great American story.
[reel whirring]
[motor whirring]
[marching]
[explosion]
[Barbara] You have the freedom
to choose
the kind of future you want.
You're denied the luxury
of opting out.
You can't opt out.
You're already in.
How can you opt out
where you are?
You are involved in life.
You make the choice to lead.
But if you choose to lead,
you must be sure
you have the capability,
the capacity,
the competence to do the job.
[reel whirring]
[calm music playing]
[]
[Barbara] Myself
and my two sisters grew up
in the Fifth Ward of Houston.
We didn't know that we were in
a deprived sector of the city.
When everybody's poor,
you don't ever think
about poverty.
We thought we'd just play
in our gravel streets
and eat the dust,
which the cars would stir up.
We didn't worry about it
too much.
[uplifting music playing]
I don't know...
[Rosemary] Barbara had
a beautiful alto voice.
We started singing together
at the church
to where we belong,
at Good Hope Missionary
Baptist Church.
And we even gave them
little mini recitals.
Grandpa Patton showed
favoritism to Barbara
when we would go sometimes
back to evening church,
she would stay there with him.
[calm music playing]
[Barbara] Grandpa Patton
was a junk man.
We would weigh that paper
and weigh the rags,
hitch up his mules,
and go sell them.
I say we, because I was
my Grandpa Patton's
partner in business.
And we had more money
than anybody we encountered.
[horses neigh]
[Barbara] My father wanted
excellence in his children.
I was very proud
of a report card.
I had five As and one B.
My father, he looked at it
and then with a scowl,
"Why do you have this B?"
So I was reverent toward him,
he taught me to love,
to do the best that I could do.
I didn't want to be
run of the mill.
I don't want to be
just same old, same old.
I want to be
a little bit different
and uh, superior to tell truth.
[birds chirping]
[Otis] Barbara and I
were students
together in high school
and we went on
to Texas Southern University
together.
We were partners as members
of the Texas Southern
University debate team
under the direction
of Dr. Thomas Freeman.
[Brenda] Dr. Thomas Freeman
was a well-known
renowned debate coach
and he taught Martin Luther King
and some others.
Under him, she learned
about cadence
and the importance of research,
of enunciation, pacing.
[upbeat music playing]
[]
[Rodney] Everybody loved
Dr. Freeman.
All of us on the debate team
did as much as we could
to please him.
He told me a good speaker
accomplishes three things.
You make people laugh,
you make people cry,
and you make sense.
And if you can only do one,
make sense
and sit your boring self down.
[Barbara] We would drive
into a city.
The signs are up.
White, colored.
Thomas Freeman would refuse
to go in the back door.
"He said, " We'll get a sandwich
and eat it
by the side of the road
"before I take you through
a back door."
That certainly made
an impression on me.
[door bell jingles]
[upbeat music playing]
[Otis] The final event
for Barbara and me
was a debate against a team
from Harvard University,
something akin to being
in the World Series, I guess.
[Rodney] It was a first.
A black university in the South,
as deep in the heart of Dixie
as you could get,
with a all-black debate team,
against Harvard University.
[Barbara] The judges of the
debate said it ended in a tie.
People were shocked.
[Barbara] Harvard is supposed
to be so high, and sharp,
and smart that debating
a little group like TSU
to call it a tie,
we must have won.
[Otis] It just really
told us personally
that we could leave
Texas Southern University
and go on to do anything
that we wanted to do.
[Barbara] I was a sophomore
at Texas Southern University.
I can remember reading
this big headline,
"Segregation Ends."
And I said, "Ha, dog."
In my naivet,
I thought tomorrow morning
it was going to happen.
When I say,
it was a miracle for her
to come out of the 5th ward
of that era.
I mean, you were not permitted
to leave 5th ward.
We are right in the shadow
of Downtown Houston.
But you couldn't go
Downtown Houston.
[Barbara] Before I went to
law school,
my world had been all black.
[chatter]
[Barbara] And then I arrive
to attend law school
at Boston University.
In our entering class,
there were about 300 people.
Of the 300, there were
three or four blacks.
[]
[Barbara] I knew that
if I worked harder
and studied longer,
I'd survive it.
But one thing I discovered
by observing
is that young white people
love to stop
whatever they're doing
and have a cup of coffee.
I would just go around and say,
"You need to take a break.
Let's have a cup
of coffee."
That always worked.
I formed many friendships
over a cup of coffee.
[Barbara] The first thing
I did when I got my law degree
was to take the red ribbon off
and make sure
that my name was on it.
And then I cried.
Because of what
had gone into it.
[car whirring]
[car whooshing]
[upbeat music playing]
[Barbara] I had the notion
that I'd like to do something
to affect the way
masses of people live.
I became very interested
in politics working first
in the Kennedy-Johnson campaign.
[applause]
Let us move for the unified goal
of an America where every man
will be free to live and be
whatever he desires to be.
[Mary] She started speaking
at some events
and began to come
to public attention.
[Barbara] The Democrats
around there said,
"You ought to run
for the Texas House
of Representatives."
[Mary] They saw Barbara
as a person
around whom the black community
could coalesce.
[Barbara] I ran twice
for the Texas legislation
and was defeated.
Why could I not win?
[Max] It was a time
when cities like Houston
were gerrymandered
in a different way
because they stacked the deck.
People had to run into
these countrywide district,
so that meant that
in Houston, in Austin, Dallas,
black voters never could get
a majority of anything.
[Ashley] The districts
were discriminatory
in how their lines
were outlined,
in order to divide
the black voting black.
[Max] She got more votes
not to be elected
to the Texas House
than I got to be elected
to the Texas Senate.
[Barbara] The disappointment
was especially bitter,
because I was playing
by the rules,
but the rules were not fair.
Then the Supreme Court
established the principle
of one person, one vote.
[Ashley] That opened up
the door for districts
to be redrawn in ways
where black people
could represent black people.
[Barbara] The Texas
legislature was required
to reapportion itself.
So in 1966, I ran again,
this time in one of those
newly-created
state senatorial districts.
I won.
And my political career
got started.
[Jasmine] It speaks to why
it is important
that we have people
who accurately interpret
these constitutional amendments.
This is how we ended up
with seats where black folk
could have a voice.
[Senfronia] At that
particular time,
black people only could be
on the Capitol ground
if you were cutting the grass,
polishing the statues
or cleaning the building.
On her first day,
she was like an unknown person
from outer space coming
into the Texas Senate.
They didn't even have
a restroom which she could use
and they had to build
a bathroom specifically
for her to use.
The good thing about that is
they let her design it.
Everybody's going down
to see what she looks like
to see someone come back
to the Senate
after reconstruction,
an African American and a woman.
It made black people
feel like they had a say
in help to shape
their government.
Barbara Jordan
carried with her at all times,
the Constitution
and a photo of her grandfather.
[reel whirring]
[Barbara] My grandpa
was always saying
that you couldn't trust
the world out there,
so you had to figure things
out for yourself,
but you had to love humanity
even if you couldn't trust it.
[playful music playing]
[Rodney] Barbara Jordan
came along in a era
in which you had
a very conservative
group of men
who ran the Texas Senate.
Many of the older white men
who were in that
had probably never had
any kind of relationship
with a black woman
unless she was a maid
in his house.
[Ben] I was a speaker
of the house
and I went over to the Senate
to see the Senate sworn in.
There were a lot of older men
that had reservations
about what kind of senator,
uh, Barbara's gonna be.
The Senate would go on hunts.
There were some reservations
at first on part
of the senators.
What are we gonna ask Barbara?
We're all men.
No one really hunted,
they played cards,
and drank whiskey,
and sang songs.
Could Barbara fit in?
We asked Barbara to go
and not only did she fit in,
she brought her guitar.
She was one of the first ones
down around the fire
and had a glass of scotch
in her hand
and she was one
of the last ones to go to bed.
Barbara Jordan was really
a good old boy
and everybody realized that.
[Jasmine] She walked in
with a certain level
of credentials,
and she was able to demand
a level of respect
that they probably
didn't even know
that they would be giving
to a Black woman.
[Barbara] Once I cut through
the maleness
of the Texas State Senate
and their view
that I was going to be
a disruptive force
rather than a helping force,
I enjoyed being in the Senate.
[Rodney] The Texas Senate,
you have to persuade people.
So even if you shoot down
that argument and debate,
you got to do it in such a way
you don't anger 'em,
because you may need
their vote 10 minutes later.
[Mary] Barbara learned
a whole lot
about political power.
[Ben] Barbara did some things
that some
of her liberal friends
would have been disappointed
if they'd had known
that she did that.
[Barbara] We didn't agree
politically
on practically anything,
but I got along with them
and formed genuine friendships.
We sat by each other
over and over.
We began to talk
about ourselves,
tell our history
and became close,
close friends,
almost brother and sister.
[birds chirping]
At the time,
there was a really vibrant
civil rights and black power
movement going on.
[reel whirring]
I tell you,
I got to change my life,
because I'm choking to death.
[indistinct chanting]
[Huey] The party is one
with the people,
because we struggle
with all oppressed people.
We struggle against
the international bourgeoisie.
[Fannie] I went down
the 31st of August
to try to register.
They wasn't ready
for that in Mississippi.
They shot in the house
15 times thinking
that I was there.
[]
[Barbara] You, my friends,
can help somehow tear down
these walls that divides people
into groups and separates them.
The people of this country,
I ask you,
what about the basic
and fundamental problem
of human understanding,
of a human care
for human beings?
[uplifting music playing]
[]
[Senfronia] There was
an upswing of women
being energized politically.
[Rodney] Most of the more
progressive issues
that Barbara Jordan wanted
to pass were not going to pass
the Texas Senate.
[Barbara] It's not an anti-male
chauvinistic movement.
And I know, men, that there
are some of you
who remain reluctant to embrace
the cause of the equality
of women.
We want to help you.
You need help.
[audience laughs]
[]
[Rosemary] In Texas,
it was not until '73
that a woman
was able to have a credit card
in her name or buy property.
[Ben] Barbara wanted
the Equal Rights.
Constitutional Amendment
for women
to pass and wanted Texas
to be one of the early states
to do it.
[Max] She was able
to reach out to people
on all sides
and pull them together.
[Ben] She got to be the author
of the Equal Rights.
Constitutional Amendment
for women,
one of the first
legislative branches
of any state that passed
in the United States.
[]
[Ruth] Keep in mind
that in the days
when she grew up,
the goal for girls at the time
was to find a marriage
as soon as possible
and to be rescued from
your situation as a woman.
And that meant that, you know,
boys had to like you.
And if they didn't,
well, gee, I mean,
what was wrong with you
and what was going
to happen to you?
[reel whirring]
[uplifting music playing]
[]
[Barbara] One thing
I learned early on
was that you can't work
all the time.
You need people around you
who don't care
about titles or status.
One night
after wrapping up a long day,
some friends invited me out.
That's where I met Nancy Earl.
She worked at the university,
and from the moment
we started talking,
it felt easy.
We played music, sang together,
and just enjoyed the night.
Nancy had this way
of making people feel at ease.
I remember thinking,
"This is something
I'd love to do again."
She enjoyed being
with Nancy Earl.
She finally felt she could relax
and be herself.
[vehicles whooshing by]
[Barbara] SCR number...
-[Man 2] 14.
-[Barbara] 14.
All those in favor of adoption
of the resolution, vote aye.
[Men]
Aye.
[Barbara] Those opposed,
vote no.
Ayes have it.
Resolution is adopted.
[Ben] Barbara was
an independent person
who had an agenda
to represent her district.
[Barbara] Our Urban Affairs
Committee devoted specifically
and entirely to the solutions
of problems of the cities.
I'm frankly very disappointed
in the work
of the Constitutional
Commission.
You don't have
any daycare center here?
So if you can
find someone who can take care
of the two youngest children...
You would be able to work?
[Ben] And she had agenda
way beyond
the borders of Texas.
She wanted to go to Washington.
A group of us found
the empty building,
and we set up the headquarters.
We literally would
stuff envelopes
and lick stamps.
[Rosemary] We spent a lot
of time in the headquarters,
helping in whatever way we could
to boost the campaign for her.
[phone ringing in background]
[indistinct chatter in distance]
[classical music playing]
[applause]
[Mary] Her main opponent
in the Democratic primary
was Curtis Graves.
[Curtis] If you hear
candidates now
talking about law and order,
they don't mean the kind
of law and order that we mean.
We mean law
that isn't necessarily looking
for order as an end result,
but rather law
which is looking for
justice as an end result.
[applause]
[Curtis] I represent
the real Democrats of Texas,
who have always supported
the traditional philosophy
of liberalism.
[Rodney] Curtis Graves had
been a bomb-throwing,
very progressive,
outspoken member of the House.
And so he had a lot of
links out there
in the black community.
[Curtis] I served
in the Texas legislature
at the same time
that Barbara Jordan did.
I guess she chose not
to be affiliated
with the causes
that I was involved in,
because they were
a little too liberal
for her politics.
Barbara Jordan
looked really good
in terms of this being her time.
He had also still
put in the time.
[Frank] He was a firebrand
who liked
to be confrontational.
He tried to make it look
like Barbara Jordan
was kowtowing
to the old white guys.
[Mary] And well, he started
circulating rumors
that Barbara was gay.
[Senfronia] Curtis Graves
is a light-light complexion
of African American guy
running against
a dark complexion woman.
[Barbara] The press seldom
presented me
in a favorable light.
[country music playing]
[]
[Barbara] The world had decided
that we were all Negro,
but some of us were more
Negro than others.
You went further,
you got the awards
if you were not
Black-Black with kinky hair.
Black was bad.
You didn't want to be Black.
[Barbara] Everything is
on the table
when you're out there
running for public office.
It is a requirement
of the person
who puts themselves out there.
You're going to feel
that kind of pain
that comes
from that kind of scrutiny.
And if you don't want
that kind of scrutiny,
don't seek the office.
[indistinct whispers]
By that time,
Barbara Jordan was able
to have the relationships
with both the black community
and the union community,
which crossed racial lines.
[Barbara] I was trying to get
the hard-nosed,
crusty business establishment
in the city of Houston
to come to the fundraising
rally for me
and endorse my candidacy
for Congress.
Well, they said we might come.
We, I guess.
But then the word got out.
Lyndon Johnson is coming.
Lyndon Johnson came
to the first reception
that we had
at the Rice Hotel in Houston
when Barbara Jordan
was gonna run for Congress.
[Barbara] And of course,
that guaranteed a success
of the rally.
And anybody who thought
they were somebody
came to the Rice Hotel.
[Mary] And of course,
she adored him for that.
[Barbara] Lyndon Johnson
held my hand in both of his
as only he could do and said,
"If ever you need anything
from me, just call."
He looked at her as the future
of the new South.
We gave you Lyndon Johnson
and now we're giving you
Barbara Jordan.
[audience laughs]
[applause]
[Mary] He saw and heard
the potential
and that was a friendship that
lasted until Johnson died.
[]
[Rodney] That picture was
on the front page
of the newspapers
throughout Texas.
[]
Curtis Graves just didn't have
what Barbara Jordan had.
[Ben] Once she was elected,
she moved away
from the liberal wing
and into the Lyndon Johnson
wing of the party
by doing their bidding
in many cases.
And that may have been
a wise decision.
It eventually got her elected
to the Congress
of the United States.
But I promised you
that you would have
a clear, sound, effective,
clarion voice on the floor
of United States House
of Representatives
if you elected me
and I guarantee you,
you have that.
[applauding & cheering]
[Richard Nixon]
I would only hope
that in these next four years,
we can so conduct ourselves
in this country
that years from now,
people will look back
to the generation of the 1970s.
And they will say,
"God bless America."
[]
[]
[Mary] Nancy came
to Washington with Barbara.
When you look back, yes,
it's easy to see
that they were a couple.
They shared a house together,
they shared a life together,
and publicly that was
all there was to it.
Nancy cared for Barbara Jordan,
respected her,
gave her her space.
Nancy understood
that Barbara Jordan's
love and life was politics.
[indistinct chanting]
[Barbara] The civil rights
movement is still alive
and well.
Its methodology
has perhaps changed.
The political arena,
that's where
the black radicals have gone.
[indistinct shouting]
[Ashley] The Congressional
Black Caucus started in 1971.
Black people are in that space
in a way that we never
have been before.
[Jasmine] The difference
in state and federal,
there's a lot more eyes on you.
And cameras rolling.
[indistinct speech]
[]
[Interviewer 1] You've made
history in the Texas Senate
and now being
the first black woman elected
to the US Congress
from the South,
How do you feel about all this?
Well, I'm often asked
whether I feel historical
and I... I really don't.
[Elizabeth] Barbara Jordan
wanted to be on
the House Judiciary Committee.
There were very few women,
but there we were together.
It was a hard slog.
You get there
and all of a sudden,
you're voting on
agricultural appropriations.
Well, I'm from Brooklyn,
I don't know too much
about farming.
But of course,
what I didn't know
was that
when impeachments come up,
the House Judiciary Committee
plays the key role.
[Reporter 1] The Democratic
National Committee
is trying to solve
a spy mystery.
Five intruders were captured
by police
inside the offices of
the committee in Washington.
The five men carried cameras
and apparently, had found
an electronic bug.
Mr. Nixon says empathetically
that the White House
is in no way involved
in the burglary and mugging of
the Democratic headquarters.
You had this
slow drip of information
coming out that was possible
that the president
of the United States
was involved
in bribing burglars
to keep quiet
about a break-in
that affected the election.
And of course, Nixon said
this was completely untrue.
[Richard Nixon] I welcome
this kind of examination,
because people have gotta know
whether or not
their President's a crook.
Well, I'm not a crook.
[Barbara]
There were rumblings
about impeaching the president,
but no serious rumblings.
I had always had
the highest respect possible
for the presidency
and I could not imagine
that I would be engaged
in a process
which could lead to the end
of the presidency.
It was only last week that
the Senate Watergate Committee
learned of the existence
of tape recordings
of President Nixon's
conversations.
The tapes would tell the truth
and Nixon didn't want
the tapes to come out.
This administration has,
I think, gone further
in terms of waiving
executive privilege
than any administration
in my memory.
On the question of impeachment
of the President,
a matter now being examined by
the House Judiciary Committee
is whether
he illegally received...
[Barbara] I not only did a lot
of homework and study,
I lived the impeachment matter.
It was a 24-hour-a-day
engagement.
Could I ask any of you to say
what your own definition
of impeachable offence is?
I have no difficulty
saying that.
I do not feel that
an impeachable offence
has to be an indictable offence.
I do not think it has to be one
which shows criminality...
[Frank] You wouldn't say,
"I'm not a crook",
if you weren't a crook.
That was enough
for the rest of us,
but she needed the facts.
[Barbara] The great disservice
to the country
would be to react emotionally.
Some of my colleagues
on the Judiciary Committee
said, "He's guilty.
I'm ready to vote."
I said, "But I am not.
And I will not be ready
until I have satisfied
my own mind."
That reason, reason tells me
that this process
has to be worked now.
[Elizabeth] The Nixon tapes
were finally released
by the Supreme Court.
One of the tapes showed
that Nixon had ordered
the cover-up from the beginning.
[Barbara] The committee
will view to determine why
the President
of the United States
felt it necessary to spy
on citizens of this country.
Tamper with the evidence.
It's a long list.
[Elizabeth] I felt as though
there was no bottom
to the misconduct,
abuses of power
of Nixon and of his team.
There was so much criminal...
[chuckles]
Let's be honest about it,
criminal stuff going on.
[Brenda] It was three evenings
that the 38 members
of the U.S. House
Judiciary Committee
each had 15 minutes
to say something
about the matter of impeachment.
[Ron] 1970s, we didn't
have social media.
We didn't have
all these distractions.
We actually all
watched the news.
Everybody was glued
to what was happening
in these proceedings.
Barbara was always
a little bit of perfectionist.
She told me that on the way down
to the hearing,
she made some revisions
to the text.
[Barbara] If I can get
into the vernacular,
I had to have my stuff together.
I felt that I was participating
in a very important
historical event.
[Dan] What was at stake?
We were talking about
a widespread
criminal conspiracy led by
the President
of the United States.
And the question was,
"What are we, the people,
going to do about it?"
Barbara Jordan addressed
sharply focused
on the question.
[Chairman] I recognize
the gentle lady from Texas,
Miss Jordan, the purpose
of general debate,
not to exceed a period
of 15 minutes.
-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
-[Chairman] Miss Jordan.
Earlier today,
we heard the beginning
of the preamble
to the Constitution
of the United States.
We, the people.
It's a very eloquent beginning,
but when that document
was completed
on the 17th of September
in 1787,
I was not included
in that "We, the people."
I felt somehow for many years
that 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."
Today I am an inquisitor.
An hyperbole
would not be fictional
and would not overstate
the solemnness
that I feel right now.
My faith in the Constitution
is whole,
it is complete, it is total.
And I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator
to the diminution,
the subversion,
the destruction
of the Constitution.
When I watched this Black woman,
so articulate, so engaging,
she becomes me.
She becomes my mother
and grandmother
and every woman that I know
and every African American woman
that was privileged
to be born African American
in this country.
We know
the nature of impeachment.
We've been talking about it
a while now.
It is chiefly designed
for the president
and his high ministers
to somehow be called
into account.
It is designed to bridle
the executive
if he engages in excesses.
It is designed as a method
of national inquest
into the conduct of public men,
framers confided
in the Congress,
the power, if need be,
to remove the president
in order to strike
a delicate balance
between a president swollen
with power
and grown tyrannical
and preservation
of the independence
of the executive.
But impeachment must proceed
within the confines
of the constitutional term,
high crime and misdemeanors.
If the impeachment provision
in the Constitution
of the United States
will not reach
the offenses charged here,
then perhaps
that 18th century Constitution
should be abandoned
to a 20th century
paper shredder.
Barbara Jordan built the case
that we're not doing this.
The framers envisioned this.
And they didn't envision it
for something trivial.
They envisioned it
for something serious.
She essentially walked America
through the Constitution,
the amendments, the debate
over the impeachment articles.
[Sylvia] With Nixon,
it was all about
whether he had violated
the Constitution.
If you're following
the Constitution,
then you're doing
the right thing
and you have parameters.
It is reason and not passion
which must guide
our deliberations,
guide our debate,
and guide our decision.
I yield back the balance
of my time, Mr. Chairman.
I recognize the...
[Dan] Barbara Jordan
was looking the camera
right straight in the eye,
looked down the throat
of the camera, and said,
"America,
this is what's on the table.
This is what we have to decide.
See it clearly.
Have no confusion about it.
"This, my friends,
is what it's about."
No question.
It was an emotional time
because so much was at stake.
-[Chairman] Mr. Seiberling?
-[Seiberling] Aye.
-[Chairman] Mr. Danielson?
-[Danielson] Aye.
-[Chairman] Mr. Drinan?
-[Drinan] Aye.
-[Chairman] Ms. Holtzman?
-Aye.
[Chairman] Mr. Rangel?
Aye.
-[Chairman] Ms. Jordan?
-Aye.
Behind the committee
hearing room,
several of us cried,
absolutely shed tears.
For Richard Nixon, no,
but that the country
had come to this.
The House Judiciary
Committee today
recommended formally
the impeachment
of President Richard Nixon.
[Elizabeth] Republican
leaders, seeing that
the midterm elections
were about to come up,
knew that if Nixon
were going to fight this,
that no Republicans
would have been elected.
Therefore,
I shall resign the presidency,
effective at noon tomorrow.
[]
[Mary] When she left
the Capitol that night,
there were people
waiting outside
as she got in her car to leave.
She couldn't believe it.
And then in the days
following that,
the outpouring.
[Barbara] I'd say I got
maybe a dozen letters
from people
who didn't agree with me.
But you contrast that
to the hundreds
upon hundreds of that,
that did it for me.
It's no small thing
to be socialized
in the state of Texas
as a black woman,
being pushed down
the way she was,
How do you come through that
and then present yourself
to the nation
in such a forceful way?
[Dick] Any of your
black friends say to you,
"How could you get up there
in front of the country
and say you had faith
in the Constitution
and the law of this country
when you are a descendant
of slaves, undoubtedly?
Um, and look what the country
has done to us,
"et cetera, et cetera."
Well, certainly some...
a few will say,
"How can you say that?"
And you're just you're lying
to people.
You can't really
believe that, you said it,
"because it sounds pretty
to feel that way."
Well, Dick, if and I do believe
in the basic fundamental ideas
on which this country
was founded.
What if I checked out,
checked out on the country,
checked out on the Constitution,
decided it really doesn't
have anything to do
with the inclusion of me
now or ever?
Then what do I do?
Pack up my bags and go to sea?
[Senfronia] I think
for the first time,
she may not have been
looked upon as a black person,
but as an American.
[Dan] Barbara Jordan
became a media personage,
a household name.
Her speaking calendar
booked solid
a year in advance.
The fact that
she's the first this
or the first that
isn't what's kept her
at the top.
It's a keen intelligence,
a voice, a presence.
Let's talk about the mystery
of Barbara Jordan.
Is marriage anything
that comes into your thinking?
Oh, time to time
comes into my thinking.
What do you do when it does?
I look around
and see who's available.
And I usually come up
with a blank.
And so I... and so then
I don't get married.
Would you mind
if it didn't happen?
I don't think
I'd take it to my bed over it.
Um, as a matter of fact,
I think I could survive it.
The press was pretty gentle
about people's sexuality.
Uh, if they didn't come out
of the closet,
I don't remember her
discussing it.
[Senfronia] If Barbara Jordan
was in office
and she had even indicated
that she was a gay person
and tried to come out,
she would have been ostracized,
first of all,
by the black community.
She would have been
driven out of office.
She would have lost
all her credibility,
all her fame.
It just would have gone
down the drain.
You compound
homophobia and racism.
It is a toxic combination.
[Lisa] She had really good
reasons for keeping
her relationship quiet.
At the same time,
her friends always said,
you know, she never denied it
in personal relationships.
It wasn't a case
of internalized homophobia
that she pretended to the people
that she trusted
that she wasn't gay.
But it wasn't information
that the public was ready
to hear from someone
who was going
to represent them.
[]
[Mary] Shortly after
the Watergate hearings,
she noticed some changes
in her vision
and some weakness
in her muscles.
So she went in for some tests.
The initial tests came back
as multiple sclerosis.
The type of MS
that Barbara Jordan had,
you'd have an attack
and then remission,
and each attack
would leave a portion
of your body further damaged.
But she kept it secret.
[Rosemary] The family seemed
to have been the last to know
specifically
what the illness was.
She did not discuss it with us.
Neither we noticed
the deterioration
and knew that she was doing
all that was possible
to improve it.
[Mary] So little was known
about the disease
at the time or potential cures.
There was an uncertainty
within her
about her own life
and well-being.
But like so many things
in Barbara's life,
she put it aside,
'cause she was gonna go do
what she was gonna go do.
Right now, I'm just very pleased
that I've won re-election
to represent
the 18th Congressional
District in Congress.
A political office
isn't a destination.
It's a tool.
She was there to do things.
And she had
a very impressive list
of congressional
accomplishments.
She helped shape hundreds
of bills.
Barbara, congratulations.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I watch your commentary.
Do you now?
I hope that uh, they meet
with your approval
-from time to time.
-[laughing]
[Gerald Ford]
From time to time.
From time to time.
In '75, Barbara worked
to ensure that
the Voting Rights Act extension
also included Hispanic groups.
[applause]
[Gerald Ford] The bill
that I will sign today
broadens the provisions
to bar discrimination
against Spanish-speaking
Americans,
American Indians,
Alaskan Natives,
and Asian Americans.
[indistinct chatter]
[Gerald Ford]
There you are.
-[Man 4] Thank you.
-[Gerald Ford] Okay.
-[Man 4] All right.
-Good.
We will be here
seven years from now.
And if the act needs
to be extended again,
we'll do that.
[reel whirring]
[Host 1] Among your detractors,
you're known as having
an impatience with those
not as smart as you
an impatience bordering
on arrogance.
Would you say that's fair?
Oh, I think that's unfair.
It is just my desire
to see things move along
expeditiously without
too many missed steps.
[Dan] The key to moving ahead
has been understanding power.
That includes knowing the rules.
It also includes
guarding her independence,
avoiding labels,
making alliances all right,
but not risking too much
on them.
[Yvonne] She was not
really very active
in the Black Caucus.
She was just overcome
with the responsibilities
of her district.
Blacks are concerned about
heat, hot water, getting jobs,
unemployment, and uh...
[Barbara] The politician
who is Black
will be successful
in the larger arena
when he can show
and demonstrate flexibility
on a broad spectrum of issues
and not be a knee-jerk Black.
I would gamble
that if you would attempt
to ask her,
"What did it mean to you
being a Black American?",
that she'll find some way
of telling you that she was just
an American who happened
to be Black.
[Barbara] There is no law
which says all Black people
who are elected
to Congress must agree
with each other on every point.
[Interviewer 3]
And you don't?
And I don't.
[Interviewer 3]
What about women?
Other women members of Congress?
This is the time
that we will make women
and men share equally
in the greatness
of America.
[Man 5] She told
legislative assistant,
Bob Alcock, of a conversation
she had
with New York's militant
Congresswoman Bella Abzug.
[Barbara] Did you know
that Bella wanted
all the women to sit together
on the floor today
while they considered
the women's rights bill?
No, I didn't know that.
It's very interesting.
[laughing]
And I said
I wouldn't sit with 'em.
So she said, "Well,
they would all come over"
and sit with me."
And I told them I'd move.
[laughing]
She would not call
herself a "feminist",
because it was considered
a white woman's domain.
That is how the National
Organization of Women
were unofficially identified.
And Barbara Jordan was not going
to be pigeonholed.
[Host 2] You've been
criticized from time to time
by both Blacks and women
for not being more a part
of their team.
I think I am contributing
to the work of the team
every time I get out of bed
and go to work.
There's a Black
and there's a woman
on the job doing things,
hopefully beneficial
to the interests of Black people
and of women.
[applause]
The very first man to die
for the War of Independence
in this country
was a Black man
named Crispus Attucks.
Crispus Attucks.
[cheering, applauding]
He was a fool.
[audience laughs, cheers]
All but we wanted to prove
what great Americans we were.
We begged the white folk
to let us fight
in the War of Independence.
And they had us
fighting the Indians.
Like fools,
we should have teamed up
with the Indians
and take care of you know who.
[cheering, applauding]
[Barbara] I am militant
in my insides.
[Barbara] I know that
there are problems
which Black people face
which must be solved.
And even though
you seethe underneath
and you want to break out
in some kind of a display
of aggressiveness,
the truth of the matter
is that in the back
of your mind, you know,
that in the long run,
that display of aggressiveness
is going to retard the cause
that you're trying to fulfill
or to bring about.
So you suppress, you suppress.
[indistinct chatter]
[]
[Barbara] The last eight
years, we have seen
the employment suffer,
a recession induced
by the combination
of Mr. Nixon and Mr. Ford.
It's time that people found out
that when God put us here,
he said we were equal.
You know, it's time
to start thinking about that.
I, Gerald R. Ford,
do grant a full, free,
and absolute pardon
unto Richard Nixon
for all offenses
against the United States.
[Barbara] For the past
eight years,
Washington, D.C. has been
under a pollution alert,
because of the stench
of republicanism
accompanied
by some other foul odors.
[laughter]
And those other foul odors
may be labeled dishonor,
disgrace, betrayal of trust.
The only way that we are going
to be able to purify the air
is to elect
that rational, compassionate,
depth of intellect man
by the name of Jimmy Carter.
[cheering, whistling]
[]
My name is Jimmy Carter
and I'm running for president.
[Barbara] I made a decision
to help Carter get elected,
because the two terms I served
in Congress,
I had Richard Nixon
and Gerald Ford.
And I thought one experience
that you've got to have
is to serve in Congress
with a democratic president.
[]
I was gonna get a chance
to hear Barbara Jordan speak.
And that was a big deal for her
being the first African-American
speaking there.
[Bob] Ladies and gentlemen.
[applauding, cheering]
[Bob chuckles]
[Bob] Ladies and gentlemen.
[Rodney] When Bob Strauss
introduced her,
he didn't go through
a litany of firsts.
He just said,
"The Honorable Congresswoman.
Barbara Jordan from Houston."
Of Houston, Texas.
[applauding, cheering]
[Barbara] Thank you,
ladies and gentlemen.
144 years ago,
members of the Democratic Party
first met in convention
to select
a presidential candidate.
And our meeting
is a continuation
of that tradition.
But there is something
different about tonight.
There is something special
about tonight.
What is different?
What is special?
I, Barbara Jordan,
am a keynote speaker.
[applauding, cheering]
And my presence here
is one additional bit
of evidence
that the American dream
need not forever be deferred.
[applauding, cheering]
We have a positive vision
of the future
founded on the belief
that the gap
between the promise
and reality of America
can one day be finally closed.
We believe that.
[applause]
Let there be no illusions
about the difficulty
of forming this kind
of a national community.
It's tough, but a spirit
of harmony will survive
in America only if
each of us remembers
when self-interest
and bitterness seem to prevail
that we share a common destiny.
I have confidence
that we can form this kind
of national community.
I am going to close
my speech by quoting
a Republican president.
And I ask you that as you listen
to these words
of Abraham Lincoln,
relate them to the concept
of a national community
in which every last one of us...
participates.
"As I would not be a slave..."
"So I would not be a master."
This...
[applause]
This, this expresses my idea...
of democracy.
Whatever differs
from this to the extent
of the difference is no...
democracy.
Thank you.
[applauding, cheering]
[]
[]
[Dan] After Jimmy Carter was
elected
there was all this speculation
who was gonna be appointed what.
[Mary] Barbara had one spot
she wanted.
She wanted to be
Attorney General
of the United States.
She could do a lot
on the issues she cares about,
anti-discriminating,
voting rights, civil rights.
[Jewell] Was it possible
for Barbara Jordan
to become Attorney General
under Jimmy Carter in 1976?
No.
Society was not prepared.
We were still gathered
around the television set
if a black person
was on television in the '70s.
I don't think that I'm trapped
in representing the 18th
Congressional District
for the rest of my life.
I may want to do something else.
[Paul] One of your colleagues
said Barbara Jordan
has a gothic preoccupation
with power.
Politics, Paul, is about power.
And to say that it's not,
I think, is to deny
the reality of... of politics.
I don't yearn
for power for myself,
but I certainly yearn
for power to get things done
for the people I represent.
Tonight, Carter interviews
Representative Barbara Jordan,
who is in the running
for Attorney General.
Barbara was excited to go
to the meeting with Carter.
[Dan] On her way
into Blair House,
Representative Jordan said
she hadn't the faintest idea
what post she was being
considered for,
but sources said
that it was indeed.
Attorney General.
The Texas congresswoman
left 45 minutes later
before the hour allotted
for the interview had ended.
I personally, as a reporter
covering the story,
thought that President Carter
considered her seriously.
[]
[Elizabeth] He had his guy,
Griffin Bell,
because people
put their guys in.
[Barbara] I felt that the
black and the woman stuff
were just side issues
and that people
were going to ignore that.
Now that was naivet on my part.
[Interviewer 4] You were
reported as being arrogant
in saying that you would
only consider
the cabinet position
of Attorney General.
I suppose I was.
Uh, that is...
I don't know that there
is any sin to be attached
to one being arrogant
if one has a reason
to be arrogant.
I do not apologize.
[Mary] Andrew Young
ultimately got the appointment
as ambassador
to the United Nations.
And there were a number of
key African-American leaders
who also served
in his administration.
But Barbara was not one of them.
We've got to take that risks,
Senator.
In my judgement the 14th
and 15th ammendments
to the constitution
demand that we take that risks
if those provisions
of the constitution
are supposed to mean anything.
Politics is not easy
for a woman.
And that is period,
no semi-colon.
There is a sense still
that woman are not quite up to
the job
when it comes to deciding on
difficult issues
that is perception,
that is not reality.
I shall not seek elective office
in 1978.
I am going to serve out my term.
I trust that there will be
something for me to do
with the rest of my life.
I believe that I uh, I have
a contribution to continue
to make in either the public
or the private sector, but...
I felt that
I had made an impact.
And frankly,
I couldn't think of any way
I could do more
or get the attention
of more people
or command the attention
of more people
or get them to listen
that I had done that
and given the structure
of the body as large
and lumbersome
and cumbersome as it is.
In that setting,
I felt that I had run out
of my strength.
[Rodney] If you think
of that speech
that Barbara Jordan gave
at the Watergate impeachment
proceedings,
that was someone
teaching a lesson.
And then what does she do?
She ends up becoming a teacher.
It's Professor
Barbara Jordan now,
not Congresswoman
Jordan anymore.
Her audience now
is 14 graduate students
at the Lyndon B. Johnson
School
of Public Affairs
at the University of Texas.
Well, we're in new quarters
here today,
and I hope that...
Morning, Dan.
[Dan] Morning.
[Barbara] I want to test
your powers of concentration.
Ignore the lights.
Ignore the camera.
Ignore the star.
And just, that is,
that star, not this one.
[laughing]
[Mary] She loved to challenge
those students.
[Barbara] I no longer have
any interest
in elective office.
I think my future
is in seeing to it
that the next generation
is ready to take over.
[Annise] She had so much reach
into places
that desperately needed
another image of someone.
We went into the AIDS epidemic,
the deaths, and the isolation.
We so much needed
role models, and heroes,
and heroines to step up.
And the question
was posed to her,
why she was so silent
on LGBT issues.
And she said
there are only so many banners
she can carry at one time.
And I understand.
And it still makes me sad today.
[]
A mystery disease known as
the gay plague
has become
an epidemic unprecedented
in the history
of American medicine.
[Politician] Why haven't
the bathhouses,
whose sole purpose
is to provide a setting
for casual, promiscuous
homosexual sex,
been closed down?
[Ronald Reagan] To add
the AIDS virus
to the list
of contagious diseases
for which immigrants and aliens
can be denied entry.
[audience making noise]
We'll make America great again.
[cheer]
It's like
a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder
how I keep going under
[crowd chanting]
[Barbara] We have failed.
People who come to power
have been more concerned
with exacerbating our divisions
rather than healing our wounds.
If we are the inclusive society,
the inclusive government
we say we are,
then everybody
ought to have a say.
Freddie, you're buying
into this system.
And you used to be
about something.
I am about something.
I am about studying this system,
understanding it,
so I can change it.
Goodbye, Tracy Chapman.
Hello, Barbara Jordan.
[laughter]
[birds chirping]
[DeAnn] Nancy and she
had designed their house
that they wanted to have
out in the country.
There was this huge public area
for entertaining.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rosemary] She would have
plenty of food
and a lot of group singing.
[]
[Rosemary] And of course,
Barbara would do solos
every now and then.
[Jody] It was just so special.
And the older we got,
the more special it became.
Of course, there was food
and there was fun.
But she started to have
an annual party for the team.
[]
[Mary] One of the pleasures
that Barbara had
as she came back to Austin
was to go support
the Lady Longhorns,
the wonderful women's
basketball team
at the University of Texas.
She became an instant expert.
So uh, she gave a lot
of coaching advice.
I asked her to refrain
from berating the officials.
[Cecile] Barbara would yell
at these young women,
"Can we not shoot?"
It was like, "Oh my God."
And Barbara never missed a game.
[Ann] Barbara Jordan and I
were good friends
for many years.
We were friends other than being
political friends.
We sat together
at the Lady Longhorn
basketball games
at the University of Texas.
And often times,
you'd be frustrated
with Barbara
because you couldn't get her
to relax.
You know, you couldn't get her
to not be Barbara Jordan.
[laughing]
[Mary] And they like to tell
dirty jokes to each other.
[Ann] I'm delighted to be here
with you this evening,
because after listening
to George Bush
all these years,
I figured you needed to know
what a real Texas accent
sounds like.
[cheering]
[]
[Cecile] When mom
was elected governor,
she was trying
to change state government.
Barbara said, "Yeah, I'm...
I'm there with you."
And Ann appointed Barbara
as her ethics counsel.
I cannot tell you
how intimidating it was
to walk into that room
and be with the voice of God.
And then immediately how warm
and loving she was.
She said, "You can make money
or you can do public service,"
but you're not gonna
intermingle the two."
[Rodney] She pretty much
carved out that niche,
America's ethics advisor.
[Ronald Reagan] It's with
great pleasure
that I today announce
my intention to nominate.
United States Court
of Appeals Judge,
Robert H. Bork,
to be an associate justice
of the Supreme Court.
Robert Bork's America
is a land in which women
would be forced
into back alley abortions.
Blacks would sit
at segregated lunch counters.
Rogue police could break down
citizens' doors
in midnight rage.
And schoolchildren could not
be taught about evolution.
Writers and artists
would be censured
at the whim of government.
You don't get converted
and become...
[Newscaster] Civil rights
leaders who have been
standing in line
to denounce his nomination
today got their chance.
Hearing will come to order.
It's an honor to have you here.
And I would ask you
to raise your right hand
if I may,
Congresswoman, to be sworn.
Do you swear
to tell the whole truth
and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you very much,
Mr. Chairman.
My opposition to this nomination
is really a result
of living 51 years
as a Black American
born in the South
and determined to be heard
by the majority community.
He has disagreed
with the principle
of one person,
one vote many times.
This is what he said.
"I do not think
there is a theoretical basis
for it."
My word.
I'll tell you this much.
There is a common sense...
natural, rational basis
for all votes counting equally.
It will be very dangerous to
have someone sitting
on the supreme court
who doesn't take individual
rights seriously.
[Barbara] The Supreme Court
of the United States
is the last bulwark
of protection
for our freedoms.
[Chairman] Senator Humphrey.
[Humphrey] Which title
do you prefer?
[Barbara] Whichever
is comfortable for you.
[laughs]
You throw it back
every time, don't you?
Um. All right.
Congresswoman Jordan,
was the Senate wrong
in confirming Robert Bork
to the D.C. Circuit
Court of Appeals?
I don't know
whether you were wrong.
You might have been.
[Humphrey] Well,
in your opinion.
I'm asking in your opinion.
[Barbara] I know, I know,
I know what you're asking.
The Senate,
in its collective wisdom,
apparently decided
it was the correct thing
for the Senate to do,
and I would not second guess it.
Well, but really, you're evading
the question outrageously.
First, you accuse Robert Bork
of violating the law...
He did violate the law.
[Humphrey] Very well, then,
in your opinion,
what possible reason
could the Senate have
for confirming unanimously
someone you claim
violated the law?
The Senate maybe felt
that that was not
a serious enough
aberration for them
to deny confirmation.
[Humphrey] Oh, you really
can't be serious.
You can't be serious on that.
Of course, I can be.
[audience chuckles]
I've never seen
you humorous, I must say.
So uh, maybe
this is the first time,
tongue in cheek.
Um, you're very good.
[laughter]
[Humphrey] Professor, I believe
I'll call you, "Professor".
All right.
I could get
a lesser person really
over a barrel.
I can't get you over
that barrel.
Um, let's talk about
another point.
You said something about
you personally saw
the Supreme Court as
the guardian of your rights.
I think here is the nub
of this controversy.
I view the Constitution,
and not judges,
as the guardian of our freedom,
our rights, our liberty.
You're right.
This is the nub of the issue.
[Humphrey] Whew. Got one.
Finally, you're right.
[laughter]
The nub of the issue is this.
Many people,
particularly weak people,
underprivileged, unrepresented,
underrepresented,
minority people,
particularly the outs,
have looked
to the Supreme Court.
[Humphrey] Yes.
As the rescuer.
Mmhmm.
The Supreme Court
will throw out a lifeline
when the legislators,
and the governors,
and the everybody else
refuses to do so.
[Ashley] I think Jordan
can see down the road
how Supreme Court appointments
can not only roll back
some of those measures
that helped catapult her,
but also concerns
about the punitive nature
of lawmaking.
We do not want
to see an articulate
and persuasive voice
on the Supreme Court saying,
"That's not your function."
Congress suffered
when you left us,
but it's a delight
to have you back here today.
[Barbara] Thank you, Senator.
I remember when you were
a member of Congress,
you were one of the most
articulate members
I had the pleasure of serving
on the conference committee
with you,
and I knew you in other ways.
And of course, I differ with you
on this nomination,
but I hope you're getting
along nice in Texas
and enjoying your work
at the Lyndon Johnson
School of Government.
I am.
There's an old uh,
English expression
that says, "Character brings
forth character."
You brought forth in this body,
when you were here,
and hopefully,
in this committee.
[]
There was a long time,
for me, 15 years,
with Barbara
where we didn't know
what was going on
with her health.
[Sylvia] I never heard exactly
what it was.
We were just shocked
when she had a cane,
and then we shocked more
when she had her wheelchair.
I think we all just hoped
that there was nothing wrong.
[DeAnn] Barbara and Nancy
were deeply devoted
to each other.
As Barbara needed more
and more help, physically.
That was a test.
Because any time
a relationship changes
from being partners, friends,
to caretaker,
that was some rough years.
And all of us tried to help.
I watched her becoming
more and more disabled,
but it didn't affect her mind.
She was still blowing
and going and making speeches.
The American dream is not dead.
It is not dead.
It is gasping for breath.
But it is not dead.
[crowd cheering]
The things that I was
part of didn't change.
And not one time ever
did I hear Barbara complain.
There was no self-pity.
[birds chirping]
[laughter]
Barbara Jordan,
the former Congresswoman
and memorable political orator,
died today at the age of 59.
Today, Texas lost a pioneer.
I have this morning asked
that the state flags be lowered
to half-staff
in memory of a great Texan.
Life is not always fair.
And the people who have the most
to contribute, why,
I don't know why,
they are the ones we lose.
[Cicely] My dear Barbara Jordan,
if I were sitting
on a porch across from God,
I would thank him
for sending you to us.
[Ann] Well, Nancy, um,
the truth is
I'd counted on Barbara
preaching my funeral.
She always could make things
sound a lot better
than they were.
[laughter]
[Bill Clinton] Last time
I saw Barbara Jordan
was when Liz Carpenter
talked me into coming
to the University of Texas
to give a speech
on race relations on the day
of the Million Man March.
I was nervous enough as it was.
[audience chuckles]
And I walked out
into that vast arena.
And there were
17,000 people there.
But I could only see one,
Barbara Jordan,
smiling at me.
And there I was
about to give a speech to her
about race and the Constitution.
[audience laughs]
[applause]
It was the nearest experience
on this earth to the pastors
giving a sermon
with God in the audience.
[laughter]
[Bill Clinton]
When Barbara Jordan talked,
we listened.
She took to heart
what her Grandpa Patton
told her when she was
a little girl.
You just trot your own horse
and don't get
into the same rut
as everyone else.
[audience laughs]
Well, she sure trotted
her own horse.
And she made her own path
wide and deep.
[horse neighs]
[]
[DeAnn] Barbara's death
and her wishes
for her death came up
fairly often,
because she wanted
everyone to understand
that she wanted to be buried
on the highest hill
in the state cemetery
next to Stephen F. Austin,
who's the Father of Texas.
So where's Barbara Jordan
buried?
On top of the highest hill
on the corner
of Stephen F. Austin.
And there's only one word
on the backside
of that gravestone.
She wanted to be remembered
as a teacher.
[birds chirping]
[Barbara] I'm a patriot.
And I don't feel that
I need to apologize for that.
I'm not willing
to abandon patriotism
to what is called,
"the right wing".
It sounds so old fashioned
for a representative to say,
I am going to protect
the rights and secure
the liberties
of the American people.
But that's what we're going
to have to become.
Old fashioned watchdogs
of the civil liberties
of American citizens.
[]
[]
[Student 1] Growing up
in Houston, Texas,
I feel like I've always known
the name.
I found more about her
once I joined
the Texas Southern University
debate team.
[Student 2] Her voice,
the way she speak,
her speeches are something
you can get drawn into.
It's kind of like hearing
the voice of God speaking.
"Earlier today,
we heard the beginning"
of the preamble
to the Constitution
of the United States.
-We, the people."
-"We, the people."
"We, the people."
[Student 4] "It's a very
eloquent beginning.
But when that document
was completed
"on the 17th of September
in 1787..."
"I was not included
in that 'We, the people.'"
"I felt somehow for many years"
that George Washington
and Alexander Hamilton
"had just left me out
by mistake."
"But through
the process of amendment,
interpretation,
and court decision..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"In, 'We, the people.'"
"Today,
I am an inquisitor."
"Today,
I am an inquisitor."
"Today,
I'm an inquisitor."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"Today,
I am an Inquisitor."
[]
[Announcer] We thank you
for joining us as we dedicate
the first building
in the Texas Capitol Complex
to bear the name
of a black woman,
Barbara Jordan.
[cheering, applauding]
We rise above the sorrow
We find a way
to shine in the dark
We're the heartbeat
of tomorrow
No mistaken identity
We know who we are
Our voices echo
like thunder
As we break the chains
You can't hurt us anymore
We've gotten
used to the pain
And when we stand,
we're unstoppable
When we stand,
nothing's impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
when we stand
The songs of freedom
we're singing
Wooh
Words that will show us
the way back home
And when it's us
we believe in
We believe
No matter what they say,
you will never walk alone
Our voices echo
like thunder
As we break the chains
You can't hurt us anymore
We've gotten used
to the pain
And when we stand,
we're unstoppable
When we stand,
nothing's impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
when we
Stand up
There's no mountain
we can't climb
Stand up
Long as we stand together,
we'll be fine
Stand up
We can make the world
a better place
Like nothing and nobody
Nobody
Coming between us
Oh
Stand up till they see us
When we stand
Oh, we're unstoppable
When we stand
Oh, we can do
the impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
When we stand
Ooh
When we,
when we stand
When we, when we,
when we, when we
When we, when we
When we stand
Ooh
[]
Viewers like you make
this program possible.
Support your local PBS station.
[Barbara] What the people want
is very simple.
They want an America
as good as its promise.
[inspirational music playing]
[Ann] When you were
with Barbara,
you could never quite shake
the feeling
that you were in the presence
of somebody
that was truly great.
[crowd cheering in background]
[Brenda] Barbara Jordan
blazed a trail.
She was the first black woman
to serve
in the Texas State Senate.
The first black woman
elected to Congress
from the deep South.
Barbara Jordan
was a champion of our freedom,
our Constitution, and our laws.
[Woman 1] She could walk into
all white male spaces
and be respected.
[Max] She reached
into the heart of people
whose hearts didn't want
to be reached into.
[Woman 2] She was someone
who was respected
across party lines.
When Barbara Jordan spoke,
you just sat up and listened.
We are trying to spark
the consciousness in depth
of everybody in this country
and we feel that we have
the capacity to do it.
[Dan] Barbara Jordan's got
the voice of God.
[Barbara] When people are
eroding the foundation
of the country, don't be silent.
Don't be quiet.
[Woman 3] I see the conviction
and honesty that she had,
something that is absent
from politics today.
I think this mood
that we're in now is cyclical.
I think people
are basically good,
and honest, and that they care,
and I think we will return
to that posture.
[Dan] She carried the fire.
She carried the flame
at a very critical time
in American history.
Today I am an inquisitor.
My faith in the Constitution
is whole,
it is complete, it is total.
And I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator
to the diminution,
the subversion,
the destruction
of the Constitution.
[]
[uplifting music playing]
[]
It would be difficult
to understand and recognize
from where Barbara Jordan came
to what she became.
It's a great story.
It's a great American story.
[reel whirring]
[motor whirring]
[marching]
[explosion]
[Barbara] You have the freedom
to choose
the kind of future you want.
You're denied the luxury
of opting out.
You can't opt out.
You're already in.
How can you opt out
where you are?
You are involved in life.
You make the choice to lead.
But if you choose to lead,
you must be sure
you have the capability,
the capacity,
the competence to do the job.
[reel whirring]
[calm music playing]
[]
[Barbara] Myself
and my two sisters grew up
in the Fifth Ward of Houston.
We didn't know that we were in
a deprived sector of the city.
When everybody's poor,
you don't ever think
about poverty.
We thought we'd just play
in our gravel streets
and eat the dust,
which the cars would stir up.
We didn't worry about it
too much.
[uplifting music playing]
I don't know...
[Rosemary] Barbara had
a beautiful alto voice.
We started singing together
at the church
to where we belong,
at Good Hope Missionary
Baptist Church.
And we even gave them
little mini recitals.
Grandpa Patton showed
favoritism to Barbara
when we would go sometimes
back to evening church,
she would stay there with him.
[calm music playing]
[Barbara] Grandpa Patton
was a junk man.
We would weigh that paper
and weigh the rags,
hitch up his mules,
and go sell them.
I say we, because I was
my Grandpa Patton's
partner in business.
And we had more money
than anybody we encountered.
[horses neigh]
[Barbara] My father wanted
excellence in his children.
I was very proud
of a report card.
I had five As and one B.
My father, he looked at it
and then with a scowl,
"Why do you have this B?"
So I was reverent toward him,
he taught me to love,
to do the best that I could do.
I didn't want to be
run of the mill.
I don't want to be
just same old, same old.
I want to be
a little bit different
and uh, superior to tell truth.
[birds chirping]
[Otis] Barbara and I
were students
together in high school
and we went on
to Texas Southern University
together.
We were partners as members
of the Texas Southern
University debate team
under the direction
of Dr. Thomas Freeman.
[Brenda] Dr. Thomas Freeman
was a well-known
renowned debate coach
and he taught Martin Luther King
and some others.
Under him, she learned
about cadence
and the importance of research,
of enunciation, pacing.
[upbeat music playing]
[]
[Rodney] Everybody loved
Dr. Freeman.
All of us on the debate team
did as much as we could
to please him.
He told me a good speaker
accomplishes three things.
You make people laugh,
you make people cry,
and you make sense.
And if you can only do one,
make sense
and sit your boring self down.
[Barbara] We would drive
into a city.
The signs are up.
White, colored.
Thomas Freeman would refuse
to go in the back door.
"He said, " We'll get a sandwich
and eat it
by the side of the road
"before I take you through
a back door."
That certainly made
an impression on me.
[door bell jingles]
[upbeat music playing]
[Otis] The final event
for Barbara and me
was a debate against a team
from Harvard University,
something akin to being
in the World Series, I guess.
[Rodney] It was a first.
A black university in the South,
as deep in the heart of Dixie
as you could get,
with a all-black debate team,
against Harvard University.
[Barbara] The judges of the
debate said it ended in a tie.
People were shocked.
[Barbara] Harvard is supposed
to be so high, and sharp,
and smart that debating
a little group like TSU
to call it a tie,
we must have won.
[Otis] It just really
told us personally
that we could leave
Texas Southern University
and go on to do anything
that we wanted to do.
[Barbara] I was a sophomore
at Texas Southern University.
I can remember reading
this big headline,
"Segregation Ends."
And I said, "Ha, dog."
In my naivet,
I thought tomorrow morning
it was going to happen.
When I say,
it was a miracle for her
to come out of the 5th ward
of that era.
I mean, you were not permitted
to leave 5th ward.
We are right in the shadow
of Downtown Houston.
But you couldn't go
Downtown Houston.
[Barbara] Before I went to
law school,
my world had been all black.
[chatter]
[Barbara] And then I arrive
to attend law school
at Boston University.
In our entering class,
there were about 300 people.
Of the 300, there were
three or four blacks.
[]
[Barbara] I knew that
if I worked harder
and studied longer,
I'd survive it.
But one thing I discovered
by observing
is that young white people
love to stop
whatever they're doing
and have a cup of coffee.
I would just go around and say,
"You need to take a break.
Let's have a cup
of coffee."
That always worked.
I formed many friendships
over a cup of coffee.
[Barbara] The first thing
I did when I got my law degree
was to take the red ribbon off
and make sure
that my name was on it.
And then I cried.
Because of what
had gone into it.
[car whirring]
[car whooshing]
[upbeat music playing]
[Barbara] I had the notion
that I'd like to do something
to affect the way
masses of people live.
I became very interested
in politics working first
in the Kennedy-Johnson campaign.
[applause]
Let us move for the unified goal
of an America where every man
will be free to live and be
whatever he desires to be.
[Mary] She started speaking
at some events
and began to come
to public attention.
[Barbara] The Democrats
around there said,
"You ought to run
for the Texas House
of Representatives."
[Mary] They saw Barbara
as a person
around whom the black community
could coalesce.
[Barbara] I ran twice
for the Texas legislation
and was defeated.
Why could I not win?
[Max] It was a time
when cities like Houston
were gerrymandered
in a different way
because they stacked the deck.
People had to run into
these countrywide district,
so that meant that
in Houston, in Austin, Dallas,
black voters never could get
a majority of anything.
[Ashley] The districts
were discriminatory
in how their lines
were outlined,
in order to divide
the black voting black.
[Max] She got more votes
not to be elected
to the Texas House
than I got to be elected
to the Texas Senate.
[Barbara] The disappointment
was especially bitter,
because I was playing
by the rules,
but the rules were not fair.
Then the Supreme Court
established the principle
of one person, one vote.
[Ashley] That opened up
the door for districts
to be redrawn in ways
where black people
could represent black people.
[Barbara] The Texas
legislature was required
to reapportion itself.
So in 1966, I ran again,
this time in one of those
newly-created
state senatorial districts.
I won.
And my political career
got started.
[Jasmine] It speaks to why
it is important
that we have people
who accurately interpret
these constitutional amendments.
This is how we ended up
with seats where black folk
could have a voice.
[Senfronia] At that
particular time,
black people only could be
on the Capitol ground
if you were cutting the grass,
polishing the statues
or cleaning the building.
On her first day,
she was like an unknown person
from outer space coming
into the Texas Senate.
They didn't even have
a restroom which she could use
and they had to build
a bathroom specifically
for her to use.
The good thing about that is
they let her design it.
Everybody's going down
to see what she looks like
to see someone come back
to the Senate
after reconstruction,
an African American and a woman.
It made black people
feel like they had a say
in help to shape
their government.
Barbara Jordan
carried with her at all times,
the Constitution
and a photo of her grandfather.
[reel whirring]
[Barbara] My grandpa
was always saying
that you couldn't trust
the world out there,
so you had to figure things
out for yourself,
but you had to love humanity
even if you couldn't trust it.
[playful music playing]
[Rodney] Barbara Jordan
came along in a era
in which you had
a very conservative
group of men
who ran the Texas Senate.
Many of the older white men
who were in that
had probably never had
any kind of relationship
with a black woman
unless she was a maid
in his house.
[Ben] I was a speaker
of the house
and I went over to the Senate
to see the Senate sworn in.
There were a lot of older men
that had reservations
about what kind of senator,
uh, Barbara's gonna be.
The Senate would go on hunts.
There were some reservations
at first on part
of the senators.
What are we gonna ask Barbara?
We're all men.
No one really hunted,
they played cards,
and drank whiskey,
and sang songs.
Could Barbara fit in?
We asked Barbara to go
and not only did she fit in,
she brought her guitar.
She was one of the first ones
down around the fire
and had a glass of scotch
in her hand
and she was one
of the last ones to go to bed.
Barbara Jordan was really
a good old boy
and everybody realized that.
[Jasmine] She walked in
with a certain level
of credentials,
and she was able to demand
a level of respect
that they probably
didn't even know
that they would be giving
to a Black woman.
[Barbara] Once I cut through
the maleness
of the Texas State Senate
and their view
that I was going to be
a disruptive force
rather than a helping force,
I enjoyed being in the Senate.
[Rodney] The Texas Senate,
you have to persuade people.
So even if you shoot down
that argument and debate,
you got to do it in such a way
you don't anger 'em,
because you may need
their vote 10 minutes later.
[Mary] Barbara learned
a whole lot
about political power.
[Ben] Barbara did some things
that some
of her liberal friends
would have been disappointed
if they'd had known
that she did that.
[Barbara] We didn't agree
politically
on practically anything,
but I got along with them
and formed genuine friendships.
We sat by each other
over and over.
We began to talk
about ourselves,
tell our history
and became close,
close friends,
almost brother and sister.
[birds chirping]
At the time,
there was a really vibrant
civil rights and black power
movement going on.
[reel whirring]
I tell you,
I got to change my life,
because I'm choking to death.
[indistinct chanting]
[Huey] The party is one
with the people,
because we struggle
with all oppressed people.
We struggle against
the international bourgeoisie.
[Fannie] I went down
the 31st of August
to try to register.
They wasn't ready
for that in Mississippi.
They shot in the house
15 times thinking
that I was there.
[]
[Barbara] You, my friends,
can help somehow tear down
these walls that divides people
into groups and separates them.
The people of this country,
I ask you,
what about the basic
and fundamental problem
of human understanding,
of a human care
for human beings?
[uplifting music playing]
[]
[Senfronia] There was
an upswing of women
being energized politically.
[Rodney] Most of the more
progressive issues
that Barbara Jordan wanted
to pass were not going to pass
the Texas Senate.
[Barbara] It's not an anti-male
chauvinistic movement.
And I know, men, that there
are some of you
who remain reluctant to embrace
the cause of the equality
of women.
We want to help you.
You need help.
[audience laughs]
[]
[Rosemary] In Texas,
it was not until '73
that a woman
was able to have a credit card
in her name or buy property.
[Ben] Barbara wanted
the Equal Rights.
Constitutional Amendment
for women
to pass and wanted Texas
to be one of the early states
to do it.
[Max] She was able
to reach out to people
on all sides
and pull them together.
[Ben] She got to be the author
of the Equal Rights.
Constitutional Amendment
for women,
one of the first
legislative branches
of any state that passed
in the United States.
[]
[Ruth] Keep in mind
that in the days
when she grew up,
the goal for girls at the time
was to find a marriage
as soon as possible
and to be rescued from
your situation as a woman.
And that meant that, you know,
boys had to like you.
And if they didn't,
well, gee, I mean,
what was wrong with you
and what was going
to happen to you?
[reel whirring]
[uplifting music playing]
[]
[Barbara] One thing
I learned early on
was that you can't work
all the time.
You need people around you
who don't care
about titles or status.
One night
after wrapping up a long day,
some friends invited me out.
That's where I met Nancy Earl.
She worked at the university,
and from the moment
we started talking,
it felt easy.
We played music, sang together,
and just enjoyed the night.
Nancy had this way
of making people feel at ease.
I remember thinking,
"This is something
I'd love to do again."
She enjoyed being
with Nancy Earl.
She finally felt she could relax
and be herself.
[vehicles whooshing by]
[Barbara] SCR number...
-[Man 2] 14.
-[Barbara] 14.
All those in favor of adoption
of the resolution, vote aye.
[Men]
Aye.
[Barbara] Those opposed,
vote no.
Ayes have it.
Resolution is adopted.
[Ben] Barbara was
an independent person
who had an agenda
to represent her district.
[Barbara] Our Urban Affairs
Committee devoted specifically
and entirely to the solutions
of problems of the cities.
I'm frankly very disappointed
in the work
of the Constitutional
Commission.
You don't have
any daycare center here?
So if you can
find someone who can take care
of the two youngest children...
You would be able to work?
[Ben] And she had agenda
way beyond
the borders of Texas.
She wanted to go to Washington.
A group of us found
the empty building,
and we set up the headquarters.
We literally would
stuff envelopes
and lick stamps.
[Rosemary] We spent a lot
of time in the headquarters,
helping in whatever way we could
to boost the campaign for her.
[phone ringing in background]
[indistinct chatter in distance]
[classical music playing]
[applause]
[Mary] Her main opponent
in the Democratic primary
was Curtis Graves.
[Curtis] If you hear
candidates now
talking about law and order,
they don't mean the kind
of law and order that we mean.
We mean law
that isn't necessarily looking
for order as an end result,
but rather law
which is looking for
justice as an end result.
[applause]
[Curtis] I represent
the real Democrats of Texas,
who have always supported
the traditional philosophy
of liberalism.
[Rodney] Curtis Graves had
been a bomb-throwing,
very progressive,
outspoken member of the House.
And so he had a lot of
links out there
in the black community.
[Curtis] I served
in the Texas legislature
at the same time
that Barbara Jordan did.
I guess she chose not
to be affiliated
with the causes
that I was involved in,
because they were
a little too liberal
for her politics.
Barbara Jordan
looked really good
in terms of this being her time.
He had also still
put in the time.
[Frank] He was a firebrand
who liked
to be confrontational.
He tried to make it look
like Barbara Jordan
was kowtowing
to the old white guys.
[Mary] And well, he started
circulating rumors
that Barbara was gay.
[Senfronia] Curtis Graves
is a light-light complexion
of African American guy
running against
a dark complexion woman.
[Barbara] The press seldom
presented me
in a favorable light.
[country music playing]
[]
[Barbara] The world had decided
that we were all Negro,
but some of us were more
Negro than others.
You went further,
you got the awards
if you were not
Black-Black with kinky hair.
Black was bad.
You didn't want to be Black.
[Barbara] Everything is
on the table
when you're out there
running for public office.
It is a requirement
of the person
who puts themselves out there.
You're going to feel
that kind of pain
that comes
from that kind of scrutiny.
And if you don't want
that kind of scrutiny,
don't seek the office.
[indistinct whispers]
By that time,
Barbara Jordan was able
to have the relationships
with both the black community
and the union community,
which crossed racial lines.
[Barbara] I was trying to get
the hard-nosed,
crusty business establishment
in the city of Houston
to come to the fundraising
rally for me
and endorse my candidacy
for Congress.
Well, they said we might come.
We, I guess.
But then the word got out.
Lyndon Johnson is coming.
Lyndon Johnson came
to the first reception
that we had
at the Rice Hotel in Houston
when Barbara Jordan
was gonna run for Congress.
[Barbara] And of course,
that guaranteed a success
of the rally.
And anybody who thought
they were somebody
came to the Rice Hotel.
[Mary] And of course,
she adored him for that.
[Barbara] Lyndon Johnson
held my hand in both of his
as only he could do and said,
"If ever you need anything
from me, just call."
He looked at her as the future
of the new South.
We gave you Lyndon Johnson
and now we're giving you
Barbara Jordan.
[audience laughs]
[applause]
[Mary] He saw and heard
the potential
and that was a friendship that
lasted until Johnson died.
[]
[Rodney] That picture was
on the front page
of the newspapers
throughout Texas.
[]
Curtis Graves just didn't have
what Barbara Jordan had.
[Ben] Once she was elected,
she moved away
from the liberal wing
and into the Lyndon Johnson
wing of the party
by doing their bidding
in many cases.
And that may have been
a wise decision.
It eventually got her elected
to the Congress
of the United States.
But I promised you
that you would have
a clear, sound, effective,
clarion voice on the floor
of United States House
of Representatives
if you elected me
and I guarantee you,
you have that.
[applauding & cheering]
[Richard Nixon]
I would only hope
that in these next four years,
we can so conduct ourselves
in this country
that years from now,
people will look back
to the generation of the 1970s.
And they will say,
"God bless America."
[]
[]
[Mary] Nancy came
to Washington with Barbara.
When you look back, yes,
it's easy to see
that they were a couple.
They shared a house together,
they shared a life together,
and publicly that was
all there was to it.
Nancy cared for Barbara Jordan,
respected her,
gave her her space.
Nancy understood
that Barbara Jordan's
love and life was politics.
[indistinct chanting]
[Barbara] The civil rights
movement is still alive
and well.
Its methodology
has perhaps changed.
The political arena,
that's where
the black radicals have gone.
[indistinct shouting]
[Ashley] The Congressional
Black Caucus started in 1971.
Black people are in that space
in a way that we never
have been before.
[Jasmine] The difference
in state and federal,
there's a lot more eyes on you.
And cameras rolling.
[indistinct speech]
[]
[Interviewer 1] You've made
history in the Texas Senate
and now being
the first black woman elected
to the US Congress
from the South,
How do you feel about all this?
Well, I'm often asked
whether I feel historical
and I... I really don't.
[Elizabeth] Barbara Jordan
wanted to be on
the House Judiciary Committee.
There were very few women,
but there we were together.
It was a hard slog.
You get there
and all of a sudden,
you're voting on
agricultural appropriations.
Well, I'm from Brooklyn,
I don't know too much
about farming.
But of course,
what I didn't know
was that
when impeachments come up,
the House Judiciary Committee
plays the key role.
[Reporter 1] The Democratic
National Committee
is trying to solve
a spy mystery.
Five intruders were captured
by police
inside the offices of
the committee in Washington.
The five men carried cameras
and apparently, had found
an electronic bug.
Mr. Nixon says empathetically
that the White House
is in no way involved
in the burglary and mugging of
the Democratic headquarters.
You had this
slow drip of information
coming out that was possible
that the president
of the United States
was involved
in bribing burglars
to keep quiet
about a break-in
that affected the election.
And of course, Nixon said
this was completely untrue.
[Richard Nixon] I welcome
this kind of examination,
because people have gotta know
whether or not
their President's a crook.
Well, I'm not a crook.
[Barbara]
There were rumblings
about impeaching the president,
but no serious rumblings.
I had always had
the highest respect possible
for the presidency
and I could not imagine
that I would be engaged
in a process
which could lead to the end
of the presidency.
It was only last week that
the Senate Watergate Committee
learned of the existence
of tape recordings
of President Nixon's
conversations.
The tapes would tell the truth
and Nixon didn't want
the tapes to come out.
This administration has,
I think, gone further
in terms of waiving
executive privilege
than any administration
in my memory.
On the question of impeachment
of the President,
a matter now being examined by
the House Judiciary Committee
is whether
he illegally received...
[Barbara] I not only did a lot
of homework and study,
I lived the impeachment matter.
It was a 24-hour-a-day
engagement.
Could I ask any of you to say
what your own definition
of impeachable offence is?
I have no difficulty
saying that.
I do not feel that
an impeachable offence
has to be an indictable offence.
I do not think it has to be one
which shows criminality...
[Frank] You wouldn't say,
"I'm not a crook",
if you weren't a crook.
That was enough
for the rest of us,
but she needed the facts.
[Barbara] The great disservice
to the country
would be to react emotionally.
Some of my colleagues
on the Judiciary Committee
said, "He's guilty.
I'm ready to vote."
I said, "But I am not.
And I will not be ready
until I have satisfied
my own mind."
That reason, reason tells me
that this process
has to be worked now.
[Elizabeth] The Nixon tapes
were finally released
by the Supreme Court.
One of the tapes showed
that Nixon had ordered
the cover-up from the beginning.
[Barbara] The committee
will view to determine why
the President
of the United States
felt it necessary to spy
on citizens of this country.
Tamper with the evidence.
It's a long list.
[Elizabeth] I felt as though
there was no bottom
to the misconduct,
abuses of power
of Nixon and of his team.
There was so much criminal...
[chuckles]
Let's be honest about it,
criminal stuff going on.
[Brenda] It was three evenings
that the 38 members
of the U.S. House
Judiciary Committee
each had 15 minutes
to say something
about the matter of impeachment.
[Ron] 1970s, we didn't
have social media.
We didn't have
all these distractions.
We actually all
watched the news.
Everybody was glued
to what was happening
in these proceedings.
Barbara was always
a little bit of perfectionist.
She told me that on the way down
to the hearing,
she made some revisions
to the text.
[Barbara] If I can get
into the vernacular,
I had to have my stuff together.
I felt that I was participating
in a very important
historical event.
[Dan] What was at stake?
We were talking about
a widespread
criminal conspiracy led by
the President
of the United States.
And the question was,
"What are we, the people,
going to do about it?"
Barbara Jordan addressed
sharply focused
on the question.
[Chairman] I recognize
the gentle lady from Texas,
Miss Jordan, the purpose
of general debate,
not to exceed a period
of 15 minutes.
-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
-[Chairman] Miss Jordan.
Earlier today,
we heard the beginning
of the preamble
to the Constitution
of the United States.
We, the people.
It's a very eloquent beginning,
but when that document
was completed
on the 17th of September
in 1787,
I was not included
in that "We, the people."
I felt somehow for many years
that 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."
Today I am an inquisitor.
An hyperbole
would not be fictional
and would not overstate
the solemnness
that I feel right now.
My faith in the Constitution
is whole,
it is complete, it is total.
And I am not going to sit here
and be an idle spectator
to the diminution,
the subversion,
the destruction
of the Constitution.
When I watched this Black woman,
so articulate, so engaging,
she becomes me.
She becomes my mother
and grandmother
and every woman that I know
and every African American woman
that was privileged
to be born African American
in this country.
We know
the nature of impeachment.
We've been talking about it
a while now.
It is chiefly designed
for the president
and his high ministers
to somehow be called
into account.
It is designed to bridle
the executive
if he engages in excesses.
It is designed as a method
of national inquest
into the conduct of public men,
framers confided
in the Congress,
the power, if need be,
to remove the president
in order to strike
a delicate balance
between a president swollen
with power
and grown tyrannical
and preservation
of the independence
of the executive.
But impeachment must proceed
within the confines
of the constitutional term,
high crime and misdemeanors.
If the impeachment provision
in the Constitution
of the United States
will not reach
the offenses charged here,
then perhaps
that 18th century Constitution
should be abandoned
to a 20th century
paper shredder.
Barbara Jordan built the case
that we're not doing this.
The framers envisioned this.
And they didn't envision it
for something trivial.
They envisioned it
for something serious.
She essentially walked America
through the Constitution,
the amendments, the debate
over the impeachment articles.
[Sylvia] With Nixon,
it was all about
whether he had violated
the Constitution.
If you're following
the Constitution,
then you're doing
the right thing
and you have parameters.
It is reason and not passion
which must guide
our deliberations,
guide our debate,
and guide our decision.
I yield back the balance
of my time, Mr. Chairman.
I recognize the...
[Dan] Barbara Jordan
was looking the camera
right straight in the eye,
looked down the throat
of the camera, and said,
"America,
this is what's on the table.
This is what we have to decide.
See it clearly.
Have no confusion about it.
"This, my friends,
is what it's about."
No question.
It was an emotional time
because so much was at stake.
-[Chairman] Mr. Seiberling?
-[Seiberling] Aye.
-[Chairman] Mr. Danielson?
-[Danielson] Aye.
-[Chairman] Mr. Drinan?
-[Drinan] Aye.
-[Chairman] Ms. Holtzman?
-Aye.
[Chairman] Mr. Rangel?
Aye.
-[Chairman] Ms. Jordan?
-Aye.
Behind the committee
hearing room,
several of us cried,
absolutely shed tears.
For Richard Nixon, no,
but that the country
had come to this.
The House Judiciary
Committee today
recommended formally
the impeachment
of President Richard Nixon.
[Elizabeth] Republican
leaders, seeing that
the midterm elections
were about to come up,
knew that if Nixon
were going to fight this,
that no Republicans
would have been elected.
Therefore,
I shall resign the presidency,
effective at noon tomorrow.
[]
[Mary] When she left
the Capitol that night,
there were people
waiting outside
as she got in her car to leave.
She couldn't believe it.
And then in the days
following that,
the outpouring.
[Barbara] I'd say I got
maybe a dozen letters
from people
who didn't agree with me.
But you contrast that
to the hundreds
upon hundreds of that,
that did it for me.
It's no small thing
to be socialized
in the state of Texas
as a black woman,
being pushed down
the way she was,
How do you come through that
and then present yourself
to the nation
in such a forceful way?
[Dick] Any of your
black friends say to you,
"How could you get up there
in front of the country
and say you had faith
in the Constitution
and the law of this country
when you are a descendant
of slaves, undoubtedly?
Um, and look what the country
has done to us,
"et cetera, et cetera."
Well, certainly some...
a few will say,
"How can you say that?"
And you're just you're lying
to people.
You can't really
believe that, you said it,
"because it sounds pretty
to feel that way."
Well, Dick, if and I do believe
in the basic fundamental ideas
on which this country
was founded.
What if I checked out,
checked out on the country,
checked out on the Constitution,
decided it really doesn't
have anything to do
with the inclusion of me
now or ever?
Then what do I do?
Pack up my bags and go to sea?
[Senfronia] I think
for the first time,
she may not have been
looked upon as a black person,
but as an American.
[Dan] Barbara Jordan
became a media personage,
a household name.
Her speaking calendar
booked solid
a year in advance.
The fact that
she's the first this
or the first that
isn't what's kept her
at the top.
It's a keen intelligence,
a voice, a presence.
Let's talk about the mystery
of Barbara Jordan.
Is marriage anything
that comes into your thinking?
Oh, time to time
comes into my thinking.
What do you do when it does?
I look around
and see who's available.
And I usually come up
with a blank.
And so I... and so then
I don't get married.
Would you mind
if it didn't happen?
I don't think
I'd take it to my bed over it.
Um, as a matter of fact,
I think I could survive it.
The press was pretty gentle
about people's sexuality.
Uh, if they didn't come out
of the closet,
I don't remember her
discussing it.
[Senfronia] If Barbara Jordan
was in office
and she had even indicated
that she was a gay person
and tried to come out,
she would have been ostracized,
first of all,
by the black community.
She would have been
driven out of office.
She would have lost
all her credibility,
all her fame.
It just would have gone
down the drain.
You compound
homophobia and racism.
It is a toxic combination.
[Lisa] She had really good
reasons for keeping
her relationship quiet.
At the same time,
her friends always said,
you know, she never denied it
in personal relationships.
It wasn't a case
of internalized homophobia
that she pretended to the people
that she trusted
that she wasn't gay.
But it wasn't information
that the public was ready
to hear from someone
who was going
to represent them.
[]
[Mary] Shortly after
the Watergate hearings,
she noticed some changes
in her vision
and some weakness
in her muscles.
So she went in for some tests.
The initial tests came back
as multiple sclerosis.
The type of MS
that Barbara Jordan had,
you'd have an attack
and then remission,
and each attack
would leave a portion
of your body further damaged.
But she kept it secret.
[Rosemary] The family seemed
to have been the last to know
specifically
what the illness was.
She did not discuss it with us.
Neither we noticed
the deterioration
and knew that she was doing
all that was possible
to improve it.
[Mary] So little was known
about the disease
at the time or potential cures.
There was an uncertainty
within her
about her own life
and well-being.
But like so many things
in Barbara's life,
she put it aside,
'cause she was gonna go do
what she was gonna go do.
Right now, I'm just very pleased
that I've won re-election
to represent
the 18th Congressional
District in Congress.
A political office
isn't a destination.
It's a tool.
She was there to do things.
And she had
a very impressive list
of congressional
accomplishments.
She helped shape hundreds
of bills.
Barbara, congratulations.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I watch your commentary.
Do you now?
I hope that uh, they meet
with your approval
-from time to time.
-[laughing]
[Gerald Ford]
From time to time.
From time to time.
In '75, Barbara worked
to ensure that
the Voting Rights Act extension
also included Hispanic groups.
[applause]
[Gerald Ford] The bill
that I will sign today
broadens the provisions
to bar discrimination
against Spanish-speaking
Americans,
American Indians,
Alaskan Natives,
and Asian Americans.
[indistinct chatter]
[Gerald Ford]
There you are.
-[Man 4] Thank you.
-[Gerald Ford] Okay.
-[Man 4] All right.
-Good.
We will be here
seven years from now.
And if the act needs
to be extended again,
we'll do that.
[reel whirring]
[Host 1] Among your detractors,
you're known as having
an impatience with those
not as smart as you
an impatience bordering
on arrogance.
Would you say that's fair?
Oh, I think that's unfair.
It is just my desire
to see things move along
expeditiously without
too many missed steps.
[Dan] The key to moving ahead
has been understanding power.
That includes knowing the rules.
It also includes
guarding her independence,
avoiding labels,
making alliances all right,
but not risking too much
on them.
[Yvonne] She was not
really very active
in the Black Caucus.
She was just overcome
with the responsibilities
of her district.
Blacks are concerned about
heat, hot water, getting jobs,
unemployment, and uh...
[Barbara] The politician
who is Black
will be successful
in the larger arena
when he can show
and demonstrate flexibility
on a broad spectrum of issues
and not be a knee-jerk Black.
I would gamble
that if you would attempt
to ask her,
"What did it mean to you
being a Black American?",
that she'll find some way
of telling you that she was just
an American who happened
to be Black.
[Barbara] There is no law
which says all Black people
who are elected
to Congress must agree
with each other on every point.
[Interviewer 3]
And you don't?
And I don't.
[Interviewer 3]
What about women?
Other women members of Congress?
This is the time
that we will make women
and men share equally
in the greatness
of America.
[Man 5] She told
legislative assistant,
Bob Alcock, of a conversation
she had
with New York's militant
Congresswoman Bella Abzug.
[Barbara] Did you know
that Bella wanted
all the women to sit together
on the floor today
while they considered
the women's rights bill?
No, I didn't know that.
It's very interesting.
[laughing]
And I said
I wouldn't sit with 'em.
So she said, "Well,
they would all come over"
and sit with me."
And I told them I'd move.
[laughing]
She would not call
herself a "feminist",
because it was considered
a white woman's domain.
That is how the National
Organization of Women
were unofficially identified.
And Barbara Jordan was not going
to be pigeonholed.
[Host 2] You've been
criticized from time to time
by both Blacks and women
for not being more a part
of their team.
I think I am contributing
to the work of the team
every time I get out of bed
and go to work.
There's a Black
and there's a woman
on the job doing things,
hopefully beneficial
to the interests of Black people
and of women.
[applause]
The very first man to die
for the War of Independence
in this country
was a Black man
named Crispus Attucks.
Crispus Attucks.
[cheering, applauding]
He was a fool.
[audience laughs, cheers]
All but we wanted to prove
what great Americans we were.
We begged the white folk
to let us fight
in the War of Independence.
And they had us
fighting the Indians.
Like fools,
we should have teamed up
with the Indians
and take care of you know who.
[cheering, applauding]
[Barbara] I am militant
in my insides.
[Barbara] I know that
there are problems
which Black people face
which must be solved.
And even though
you seethe underneath
and you want to break out
in some kind of a display
of aggressiveness,
the truth of the matter
is that in the back
of your mind, you know,
that in the long run,
that display of aggressiveness
is going to retard the cause
that you're trying to fulfill
or to bring about.
So you suppress, you suppress.
[indistinct chatter]
[]
[Barbara] The last eight
years, we have seen
the employment suffer,
a recession induced
by the combination
of Mr. Nixon and Mr. Ford.
It's time that people found out
that when God put us here,
he said we were equal.
You know, it's time
to start thinking about that.
I, Gerald R. Ford,
do grant a full, free,
and absolute pardon
unto Richard Nixon
for all offenses
against the United States.
[Barbara] For the past
eight years,
Washington, D.C. has been
under a pollution alert,
because of the stench
of republicanism
accompanied
by some other foul odors.
[laughter]
And those other foul odors
may be labeled dishonor,
disgrace, betrayal of trust.
The only way that we are going
to be able to purify the air
is to elect
that rational, compassionate,
depth of intellect man
by the name of Jimmy Carter.
[cheering, whistling]
[]
My name is Jimmy Carter
and I'm running for president.
[Barbara] I made a decision
to help Carter get elected,
because the two terms I served
in Congress,
I had Richard Nixon
and Gerald Ford.
And I thought one experience
that you've got to have
is to serve in Congress
with a democratic president.
[]
I was gonna get a chance
to hear Barbara Jordan speak.
And that was a big deal for her
being the first African-American
speaking there.
[Bob] Ladies and gentlemen.
[applauding, cheering]
[Bob chuckles]
[Bob] Ladies and gentlemen.
[Rodney] When Bob Strauss
introduced her,
he didn't go through
a litany of firsts.
He just said,
"The Honorable Congresswoman.
Barbara Jordan from Houston."
Of Houston, Texas.
[applauding, cheering]
[Barbara] Thank you,
ladies and gentlemen.
144 years ago,
members of the Democratic Party
first met in convention
to select
a presidential candidate.
And our meeting
is a continuation
of that tradition.
But there is something
different about tonight.
There is something special
about tonight.
What is different?
What is special?
I, Barbara Jordan,
am a keynote speaker.
[applauding, cheering]
And my presence here
is one additional bit
of evidence
that the American dream
need not forever be deferred.
[applauding, cheering]
We have a positive vision
of the future
founded on the belief
that the gap
between the promise
and reality of America
can one day be finally closed.
We believe that.
[applause]
Let there be no illusions
about the difficulty
of forming this kind
of a national community.
It's tough, but a spirit
of harmony will survive
in America only if
each of us remembers
when self-interest
and bitterness seem to prevail
that we share a common destiny.
I have confidence
that we can form this kind
of national community.
I am going to close
my speech by quoting
a Republican president.
And I ask you that as you listen
to these words
of Abraham Lincoln,
relate them to the concept
of a national community
in which every last one of us...
participates.
"As I would not be a slave..."
"So I would not be a master."
This...
[applause]
This, this expresses my idea...
of democracy.
Whatever differs
from this to the extent
of the difference is no...
democracy.
Thank you.
[applauding, cheering]
[]
[]
[Dan] After Jimmy Carter was
elected
there was all this speculation
who was gonna be appointed what.
[Mary] Barbara had one spot
she wanted.
She wanted to be
Attorney General
of the United States.
She could do a lot
on the issues she cares about,
anti-discriminating,
voting rights, civil rights.
[Jewell] Was it possible
for Barbara Jordan
to become Attorney General
under Jimmy Carter in 1976?
No.
Society was not prepared.
We were still gathered
around the television set
if a black person
was on television in the '70s.
I don't think that I'm trapped
in representing the 18th
Congressional District
for the rest of my life.
I may want to do something else.
[Paul] One of your colleagues
said Barbara Jordan
has a gothic preoccupation
with power.
Politics, Paul, is about power.
And to say that it's not,
I think, is to deny
the reality of... of politics.
I don't yearn
for power for myself,
but I certainly yearn
for power to get things done
for the people I represent.
Tonight, Carter interviews
Representative Barbara Jordan,
who is in the running
for Attorney General.
Barbara was excited to go
to the meeting with Carter.
[Dan] On her way
into Blair House,
Representative Jordan said
she hadn't the faintest idea
what post she was being
considered for,
but sources said
that it was indeed.
Attorney General.
The Texas congresswoman
left 45 minutes later
before the hour allotted
for the interview had ended.
I personally, as a reporter
covering the story,
thought that President Carter
considered her seriously.
[]
[Elizabeth] He had his guy,
Griffin Bell,
because people
put their guys in.
[Barbara] I felt that the
black and the woman stuff
were just side issues
and that people
were going to ignore that.
Now that was naivet on my part.
[Interviewer 4] You were
reported as being arrogant
in saying that you would
only consider
the cabinet position
of Attorney General.
I suppose I was.
Uh, that is...
I don't know that there
is any sin to be attached
to one being arrogant
if one has a reason
to be arrogant.
I do not apologize.
[Mary] Andrew Young
ultimately got the appointment
as ambassador
to the United Nations.
And there were a number of
key African-American leaders
who also served
in his administration.
But Barbara was not one of them.
We've got to take that risks,
Senator.
In my judgement the 14th
and 15th ammendments
to the constitution
demand that we take that risks
if those provisions
of the constitution
are supposed to mean anything.
Politics is not easy
for a woman.
And that is period,
no semi-colon.
There is a sense still
that woman are not quite up to
the job
when it comes to deciding on
difficult issues
that is perception,
that is not reality.
I shall not seek elective office
in 1978.
I am going to serve out my term.
I trust that there will be
something for me to do
with the rest of my life.
I believe that I uh, I have
a contribution to continue
to make in either the public
or the private sector, but...
I felt that
I had made an impact.
And frankly,
I couldn't think of any way
I could do more
or get the attention
of more people
or command the attention
of more people
or get them to listen
that I had done that
and given the structure
of the body as large
and lumbersome
and cumbersome as it is.
In that setting,
I felt that I had run out
of my strength.
[Rodney] If you think
of that speech
that Barbara Jordan gave
at the Watergate impeachment
proceedings,
that was someone
teaching a lesson.
And then what does she do?
She ends up becoming a teacher.
It's Professor
Barbara Jordan now,
not Congresswoman
Jordan anymore.
Her audience now
is 14 graduate students
at the Lyndon B. Johnson
School
of Public Affairs
at the University of Texas.
Well, we're in new quarters
here today,
and I hope that...
Morning, Dan.
[Dan] Morning.
[Barbara] I want to test
your powers of concentration.
Ignore the lights.
Ignore the camera.
Ignore the star.
And just, that is,
that star, not this one.
[laughing]
[Mary] She loved to challenge
those students.
[Barbara] I no longer have
any interest
in elective office.
I think my future
is in seeing to it
that the next generation
is ready to take over.
[Annise] She had so much reach
into places
that desperately needed
another image of someone.
We went into the AIDS epidemic,
the deaths, and the isolation.
We so much needed
role models, and heroes,
and heroines to step up.
And the question
was posed to her,
why she was so silent
on LGBT issues.
And she said
there are only so many banners
she can carry at one time.
And I understand.
And it still makes me sad today.
[]
A mystery disease known as
the gay plague
has become
an epidemic unprecedented
in the history
of American medicine.
[Politician] Why haven't
the bathhouses,
whose sole purpose
is to provide a setting
for casual, promiscuous
homosexual sex,
been closed down?
[Ronald Reagan] To add
the AIDS virus
to the list
of contagious diseases
for which immigrants and aliens
can be denied entry.
[audience making noise]
We'll make America great again.
[cheer]
It's like
a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder
how I keep going under
[crowd chanting]
[Barbara] We have failed.
People who come to power
have been more concerned
with exacerbating our divisions
rather than healing our wounds.
If we are the inclusive society,
the inclusive government
we say we are,
then everybody
ought to have a say.
Freddie, you're buying
into this system.
And you used to be
about something.
I am about something.
I am about studying this system,
understanding it,
so I can change it.
Goodbye, Tracy Chapman.
Hello, Barbara Jordan.
[laughter]
[birds chirping]
[DeAnn] Nancy and she
had designed their house
that they wanted to have
out in the country.
There was this huge public area
for entertaining.
[indistinct chatter]
[Rosemary] She would have
plenty of food
and a lot of group singing.
[]
[Rosemary] And of course,
Barbara would do solos
every now and then.
[Jody] It was just so special.
And the older we got,
the more special it became.
Of course, there was food
and there was fun.
But she started to have
an annual party for the team.
[]
[Mary] One of the pleasures
that Barbara had
as she came back to Austin
was to go support
the Lady Longhorns,
the wonderful women's
basketball team
at the University of Texas.
She became an instant expert.
So uh, she gave a lot
of coaching advice.
I asked her to refrain
from berating the officials.
[Cecile] Barbara would yell
at these young women,
"Can we not shoot?"
It was like, "Oh my God."
And Barbara never missed a game.
[Ann] Barbara Jordan and I
were good friends
for many years.
We were friends other than being
political friends.
We sat together
at the Lady Longhorn
basketball games
at the University of Texas.
And often times,
you'd be frustrated
with Barbara
because you couldn't get her
to relax.
You know, you couldn't get her
to not be Barbara Jordan.
[laughing]
[Mary] And they like to tell
dirty jokes to each other.
[Ann] I'm delighted to be here
with you this evening,
because after listening
to George Bush
all these years,
I figured you needed to know
what a real Texas accent
sounds like.
[cheering]
[]
[Cecile] When mom
was elected governor,
she was trying
to change state government.
Barbara said, "Yeah, I'm...
I'm there with you."
And Ann appointed Barbara
as her ethics counsel.
I cannot tell you
how intimidating it was
to walk into that room
and be with the voice of God.
And then immediately how warm
and loving she was.
She said, "You can make money
or you can do public service,"
but you're not gonna
intermingle the two."
[Rodney] She pretty much
carved out that niche,
America's ethics advisor.
[Ronald Reagan] It's with
great pleasure
that I today announce
my intention to nominate.
United States Court
of Appeals Judge,
Robert H. Bork,
to be an associate justice
of the Supreme Court.
Robert Bork's America
is a land in which women
would be forced
into back alley abortions.
Blacks would sit
at segregated lunch counters.
Rogue police could break down
citizens' doors
in midnight rage.
And schoolchildren could not
be taught about evolution.
Writers and artists
would be censured
at the whim of government.
You don't get converted
and become...
[Newscaster] Civil rights
leaders who have been
standing in line
to denounce his nomination
today got their chance.
Hearing will come to order.
It's an honor to have you here.
And I would ask you
to raise your right hand
if I may,
Congresswoman, to be sworn.
Do you swear
to tell the whole truth
and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
I do, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you very much,
Mr. Chairman.
My opposition to this nomination
is really a result
of living 51 years
as a Black American
born in the South
and determined to be heard
by the majority community.
He has disagreed
with the principle
of one person,
one vote many times.
This is what he said.
"I do not think
there is a theoretical basis
for it."
My word.
I'll tell you this much.
There is a common sense...
natural, rational basis
for all votes counting equally.
It will be very dangerous to
have someone sitting
on the supreme court
who doesn't take individual
rights seriously.
[Barbara] The Supreme Court
of the United States
is the last bulwark
of protection
for our freedoms.
[Chairman] Senator Humphrey.
[Humphrey] Which title
do you prefer?
[Barbara] Whichever
is comfortable for you.
[laughs]
You throw it back
every time, don't you?
Um. All right.
Congresswoman Jordan,
was the Senate wrong
in confirming Robert Bork
to the D.C. Circuit
Court of Appeals?
I don't know
whether you were wrong.
You might have been.
[Humphrey] Well,
in your opinion.
I'm asking in your opinion.
[Barbara] I know, I know,
I know what you're asking.
The Senate,
in its collective wisdom,
apparently decided
it was the correct thing
for the Senate to do,
and I would not second guess it.
Well, but really, you're evading
the question outrageously.
First, you accuse Robert Bork
of violating the law...
He did violate the law.
[Humphrey] Very well, then,
in your opinion,
what possible reason
could the Senate have
for confirming unanimously
someone you claim
violated the law?
The Senate maybe felt
that that was not
a serious enough
aberration for them
to deny confirmation.
[Humphrey] Oh, you really
can't be serious.
You can't be serious on that.
Of course, I can be.
[audience chuckles]
I've never seen
you humorous, I must say.
So uh, maybe
this is the first time,
tongue in cheek.
Um, you're very good.
[laughter]
[Humphrey] Professor, I believe
I'll call you, "Professor".
All right.
I could get
a lesser person really
over a barrel.
I can't get you over
that barrel.
Um, let's talk about
another point.
You said something about
you personally saw
the Supreme Court as
the guardian of your rights.
I think here is the nub
of this controversy.
I view the Constitution,
and not judges,
as the guardian of our freedom,
our rights, our liberty.
You're right.
This is the nub of the issue.
[Humphrey] Whew. Got one.
Finally, you're right.
[laughter]
The nub of the issue is this.
Many people,
particularly weak people,
underprivileged, unrepresented,
underrepresented,
minority people,
particularly the outs,
have looked
to the Supreme Court.
[Humphrey] Yes.
As the rescuer.
Mmhmm.
The Supreme Court
will throw out a lifeline
when the legislators,
and the governors,
and the everybody else
refuses to do so.
[Ashley] I think Jordan
can see down the road
how Supreme Court appointments
can not only roll back
some of those measures
that helped catapult her,
but also concerns
about the punitive nature
of lawmaking.
We do not want
to see an articulate
and persuasive voice
on the Supreme Court saying,
"That's not your function."
Congress suffered
when you left us,
but it's a delight
to have you back here today.
[Barbara] Thank you, Senator.
I remember when you were
a member of Congress,
you were one of the most
articulate members
I had the pleasure of serving
on the conference committee
with you,
and I knew you in other ways.
And of course, I differ with you
on this nomination,
but I hope you're getting
along nice in Texas
and enjoying your work
at the Lyndon Johnson
School of Government.
I am.
There's an old uh,
English expression
that says, "Character brings
forth character."
You brought forth in this body,
when you were here,
and hopefully,
in this committee.
[]
There was a long time,
for me, 15 years,
with Barbara
where we didn't know
what was going on
with her health.
[Sylvia] I never heard exactly
what it was.
We were just shocked
when she had a cane,
and then we shocked more
when she had her wheelchair.
I think we all just hoped
that there was nothing wrong.
[DeAnn] Barbara and Nancy
were deeply devoted
to each other.
As Barbara needed more
and more help, physically.
That was a test.
Because any time
a relationship changes
from being partners, friends,
to caretaker,
that was some rough years.
And all of us tried to help.
I watched her becoming
more and more disabled,
but it didn't affect her mind.
She was still blowing
and going and making speeches.
The American dream is not dead.
It is not dead.
It is gasping for breath.
But it is not dead.
[crowd cheering]
The things that I was
part of didn't change.
And not one time ever
did I hear Barbara complain.
There was no self-pity.
[birds chirping]
[laughter]
Barbara Jordan,
the former Congresswoman
and memorable political orator,
died today at the age of 59.
Today, Texas lost a pioneer.
I have this morning asked
that the state flags be lowered
to half-staff
in memory of a great Texan.
Life is not always fair.
And the people who have the most
to contribute, why,
I don't know why,
they are the ones we lose.
[Cicely] My dear Barbara Jordan,
if I were sitting
on a porch across from God,
I would thank him
for sending you to us.
[Ann] Well, Nancy, um,
the truth is
I'd counted on Barbara
preaching my funeral.
She always could make things
sound a lot better
than they were.
[laughter]
[Bill Clinton] Last time
I saw Barbara Jordan
was when Liz Carpenter
talked me into coming
to the University of Texas
to give a speech
on race relations on the day
of the Million Man March.
I was nervous enough as it was.
[audience chuckles]
And I walked out
into that vast arena.
And there were
17,000 people there.
But I could only see one,
Barbara Jordan,
smiling at me.
And there I was
about to give a speech to her
about race and the Constitution.
[audience laughs]
[applause]
It was the nearest experience
on this earth to the pastors
giving a sermon
with God in the audience.
[laughter]
[Bill Clinton]
When Barbara Jordan talked,
we listened.
She took to heart
what her Grandpa Patton
told her when she was
a little girl.
You just trot your own horse
and don't get
into the same rut
as everyone else.
[audience laughs]
Well, she sure trotted
her own horse.
And she made her own path
wide and deep.
[horse neighs]
[]
[DeAnn] Barbara's death
and her wishes
for her death came up
fairly often,
because she wanted
everyone to understand
that she wanted to be buried
on the highest hill
in the state cemetery
next to Stephen F. Austin,
who's the Father of Texas.
So where's Barbara Jordan
buried?
On top of the highest hill
on the corner
of Stephen F. Austin.
And there's only one word
on the backside
of that gravestone.
She wanted to be remembered
as a teacher.
[birds chirping]
[Barbara] I'm a patriot.
And I don't feel that
I need to apologize for that.
I'm not willing
to abandon patriotism
to what is called,
"the right wing".
It sounds so old fashioned
for a representative to say,
I am going to protect
the rights and secure
the liberties
of the American people.
But that's what we're going
to have to become.
Old fashioned watchdogs
of the civil liberties
of American citizens.
[]
[]
[Student 1] Growing up
in Houston, Texas,
I feel like I've always known
the name.
I found more about her
once I joined
the Texas Southern University
debate team.
[Student 2] Her voice,
the way she speak,
her speeches are something
you can get drawn into.
It's kind of like hearing
the voice of God speaking.
"Earlier today,
we heard the beginning"
of the preamble
to the Constitution
of the United States.
-We, the people."
-"We, the people."
"We, the people."
[Student 4] "It's a very
eloquent beginning.
But when that document
was completed
"on the 17th of September
in 1787..."
"I was not included
in that 'We, the people.'"
"I felt somehow for many years"
that George Washington
and Alexander Hamilton
"had just left me out
by mistake."
"But through
the process of amendment,
interpretation,
and court decision..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"I have finally
been included..."
"In, 'We, the people.'"
"Today,
I am an inquisitor."
"Today,
I am an inquisitor."
"Today,
I'm an inquisitor."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
-"Today..."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"I am an Inquisitor."
"Today,
I am an Inquisitor."
[]
[Announcer] We thank you
for joining us as we dedicate
the first building
in the Texas Capitol Complex
to bear the name
of a black woman,
Barbara Jordan.
[cheering, applauding]
We rise above the sorrow
We find a way
to shine in the dark
We're the heartbeat
of tomorrow
No mistaken identity
We know who we are
Our voices echo
like thunder
As we break the chains
You can't hurt us anymore
We've gotten
used to the pain
And when we stand,
we're unstoppable
When we stand,
nothing's impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
when we stand
The songs of freedom
we're singing
Wooh
Words that will show us
the way back home
And when it's us
we believe in
We believe
No matter what they say,
you will never walk alone
Our voices echo
like thunder
As we break the chains
You can't hurt us anymore
We've gotten used
to the pain
And when we stand,
we're unstoppable
When we stand,
nothing's impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
when we
Stand up
There's no mountain
we can't climb
Stand up
Long as we stand together,
we'll be fine
Stand up
We can make the world
a better place
Like nothing and nobody
Nobody
Coming between us
Oh
Stand up till they see us
When we stand
Oh, we're unstoppable
When we stand
Oh, we can do
the impossible
When we stand, strength
in numbers amplified
Side by side,
shoulder to shoulder
Hand in hand
When we stand
Ooh
When we,
when we stand
When we, when we,
when we, when we
When we, when we
When we stand
Ooh
[]