Barbara Jordan Quotes
What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government shall do everything and the idea that government shall do nothing.
Barbara Jordan, 1936-1996, U. S. Congresswoman (Democrat, TX), Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention, New York City, July 12, 1976
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
His reference was to his experience as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, which he and associates views as a liberal organization, while others viewed it as a conservative bastion of the establishment.
This quotation not only illustrates the typical Southern attitude at the time as the issue of Slavery began to be the subject of Federal governmental debate, but it also illustrates the incredible party flip flops over time. Ritchie was one of the leading Democratic Politicians of his day, and it was the Democrats who were opposed to Government. However, people without a knowledge of early American History might think that this quotation came from right wing Republicans of the early 21st century. By then, it was the Democrats who saw the important role of government. The Democrats were then extreme enemies of the Federal Government and were against freedom for Blacks and their rights, that the Republican Party was created and used government more than most Americans ever thought possible, ended slavery and permitted Negro voting and equality. Almost 200 years later it was the Democrats who were espousing the old Republican Views, and the Republicans holding the old Democratic view of government and adopting a more passive view on racial equality and justice.
Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader in 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. She was best known for her eloquent opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearings during the impeachment process against Richard Nixon, and as the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous other honors. She was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1978 to 1980. She was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery. Jordan's work as chair of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which recommended reducing legal immigration by about one-third, is frequently cited by American immigration restrictionists.
