[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, March 22 - December 21, 1979] Page: 3 of 120

                                
Politics
By LAURA TUMA
Daily Texan Staff
Barbara Jordan just isn't the same
woman anymore.
She has traded in titles like
,Congresswoman     and   the  hated
Congressperson (it always sounds like
one's sex has yet to be determined, she
"agreed with Dick Cavett last week) for
tthe much more modest "professor."
,She has left the hubbub of the nation's
capital for the relatively peaceful
;academic life in Austin. And perhaps
*most importantly for her image, she has
shed nearly 100 pounds - dead weight,
she, might say - to become slimmer
than ever before.
She no longer debates on the House
floor or confers with congressional
leaders about important legislative
matters; she does something 'she con-
siders more important. She teaches.
"Teaching offered me the opportunity
to take the composite of my experience
and use that to help some of the young
people headed for public service avoid
some of the pitfalls I have found," she
said  in  her familiarly     slow,
authoritative way.
AS HOLDER of the Lyndon Baines
Johnson Public Service Professorship at
the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Jordan-
teaches two classes - seminars on in-
tergovernmental relations and political
values and ethics. Enrollment for her
,classes ran so far above the 35 available

to profess
spaces that many of the students had to
be chosen by lot.
Both classes are informally struc-
tured and rely heavily on student par-
ticipation, Jordan said.
"I approach it in the manner I wanted
to be taught in school. I open the subject
matter and develop it through questions
with maximum student interaction and
with the teacher pulling it all together
from time to time. It is working ex-
cellently," she explained in her austere,
sparsely decorated office at the LBJ
school.
Despite the casual atmosphere, some
students still are in awe of their famous
teacher.
"They have not yet challenged me,"
she said, sounding more than a little dis-
appointed. "Everybody who can think
clearly and reason can come up with
ideas. They should not accept in any
literal way what I say."
BUT IT WAS precisely because
millions of Americans accepted Jordan
literally that she became an overnight
political sensation. As a member of the
House Judiciary Committee in 1974, Jor-
dan was allowed 15 minutes on national
television to express her views on im-
peachment. Her blend of patriotism and
outrage touched America more deeply
than any other legislator involved in the
impeachment hearings was able to.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole.
It is complete. It is total. I am not going
Colrfl4

orship -
to sit here and be an idle spectator to the
diminuition, the subversion, the
destruction of the Constitution..."'
"If the impeachment provision in the
Constitution of the United States will
not reach the offenses charged here,
then perhaps that 18th century Constitu-
tion should be abandoned to a 20th cen-
tury paper shredder. Has the president
committed offenses and planned and
directed and acquiesced in a course of
conduct which the Constitution will not
tolerate? That is the question. We know
that. We know the question.
"We should now forthwith proceed to
answer the question. It is reason and not
passion  which must guide our
deliberations, guide our debate, and
guide our decision."
IT WAS Jordan's moment in the sun.
The little black girl from Houston's
poverty-stricken Fifth Ward, who ate
barbeque scraps with her grandfather
on Sundays when she was a child, had
made it to the top. And she liked it
there.
She saw through Congress an act
which extended the Voting Rights Act of
1965 to Texas and required ballots to be
printed in another language if a substan-
tial portion of the population spoke that
language. Jordan was especially pleas-
ed to carry on the civil rights legislation
fostered by Johnson, the one president
to whom she felt close.
She also delivered the keynote speech

fresh

Jordan

at the 1976 Democrat
Convention, the first black
so honored. And in typic
style, she captivated the u
convention audience. Sh
speech, appropriately, w
from the man who free
slaves.
"I ask that as you list
words of Abraham Lincol
them to the concept of a n

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SAC/ f~75r

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_           y"

challenge fc
munity in which every last one of us par-
ticipates: 'As I would not be a slave so I
would not be a master. This is my idea
of democracy. Whatever differs from
this, to the extent of the difference, is
not democracy.'
JORDAN    CONTINUED     to make
headlines, and was considered a possi-
ble 1980 presidential candidate when, in
1978, she announced she would not seek
another term.
"The idea that I don't want to do this
any longer came to me about a year
before I made the announcement. It felt
comfortable to my insides. The only
question was the timing of the an-
nouncement."
Teaching, especially at a school nam-
ed for her political friend and mentor,
also felt right to her insides. She
-Texan Staff   accepted the University's offer from
among several hundred others, largely
because of LBJ.
"It certainly was a factor in my
ic National    thinking," she said of the man she often
woman to be    called the master politician. "I had an
al Jordanian   extremely high regard and general
sually rowdy   affection for him and he liked me. I
e ended her could call on him if there was anything I
ith a quote    needed him for. It was a good feeling to
d America's    know someone I had that respect for."
A framed color photograph of Jordan
and LBJ beaming at one another rests
ten to these   on a cabinet across from her desk, bear-
n you relate   ing silent testament to their mutual
ational com-   affection.

r Jordan
When she left Congress, Jordan took
on the added task of writing her
autobiography, "Barbara Jordan: A
Self-Portrait," which she co-authored
with Shelby Hearon.
JORDAN HAD BEEN approached by
publishing houses about doing an
autobiography before, but she had never
agreed. As with everything else in her
life, she had to wait until it felt right.
"I didn't feel the story of my life had
anything to say. Then I thought well,
why not put it down to this point. I am
very pleased with the book. I have no
doubt when it all got down it made a
pretty good story."
It also served to take up almost every
spare moment. When she is not
teaching, Jordan spends most of her
time jetting around the country
promoting the book at autograph parties
and on talk shows.
In the last few   weeks she has
appeared on NBC's "Today" and
"Tomorrow" shows and PBS's "Dick
Cavett Show." Although part of the con-
versation always concerns her book, the
most frequently asked questions are
why she left Congress and if she has
regretted that decision.
As to the first question, she left
because it didn't feel right any longer,
Jordan always says. As to the second, "I
haven't regretted leaving Congress
because being a professor is what I want
to do now."