Jordan was an attorney, politician and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Among other accomplishments, she was the first African-American woman elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction, the first southern African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on her own right, served as speaker of the House, and was the first woman to deliver a keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. She paid tribute to the importance of the moment by noting that, “My presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not forever be deferred.”  #WomenOnUSPaper$