Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader of the civil rights movement. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1974 she made an influential televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment process against Richard Nixon. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1994.Photograph: Uncredited (U.S. Congress). Restoration: Adam Cuerden.