Barbara Jordan praise is due. Most notably, in 1972, Jordan became the first African American woman to be elected to Congress from the South since 1898. In addition, she was the first black woman ever elected to Congress from the South, the first black woman in America to preside over a legislative body, the first black chief executive in the nation, and the first woman and the first Black keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention. During her career, Jordan sought legislative remedies to expand the reach of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. “The momentum of the 1960’s has run out,” Jordan declared. “Congress will be called upon to defend progress already made rather than undertake new initiatives. Although she was very quiet about her private life, many historians suggest that her caregiver Nancy Earl, was also her life partner. Earl was an educational psychologist that traveled with Jordan for nearly thirty years. On January 17, 1996, Barbara Jordan died from pneumonia, a complication of leukemia.