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Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State
After a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate, Madeleine Korbel Albright became the 64th Secretary of State in 1997. The first woman to lead the State Department, she was the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.
Albright earlier served as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and as a member of the President’s Cabinet and National Security Council. Before that, she was at the nonprofit Center for National Policy, promoting the study of domestic and international issues.
At Georgetown University, she taught international relations and directed programs to enhance women’s international opportunities. Albright won a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian in 1981. In the competition, she wrote about the role of the press in Poland. She also served as a Senior Fellow in Soviet and Eastern European Affairs and as legislative assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie.
An honors graduate from Wellesley in political science, she studied at Johns Hopkins University, the Russian Institute at Columbia University, and earned her Masters and Ph.D. in public law and governance. Albright, who speaks four languages, has three daughters.
Barbara Jordan
Former Member of Congress
Barbara Jordan's father was a Baptist minister who insisted that she get good grades.
She was not allowed to go to dances or movies. Like her mother, she was a gifted speaker. When a black woman lawyer spoke at her school, she decided to be a lawyer.
Jordan studied political science and history, led her university debate team and graduated magna cum laude. In 1959, she earned a law degree in Boston and first practiced law from her parent’s dining room table in Houston. She also worked for a judge and became an active Democrat.
Jordan ran twice for the Texas House of Representatives and lost. She was elected as the first black woman to the Texas Senate by a huge majority in 1966. Jordan supported the state’s first minimum wage law. In 1972, Jordan won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. On the Judiciary Committee, she was at the center of President Nixon's impeachment proceedings.
In 1973, Jordan was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She began using a wheelchair, but said it was not the reason for not seeking a fourth term in 1978. She was the first black woman to give a keynote speech at a party convention. In 1979, she became a professor at the University of Texas where her courses were extremely popular with students. She died in 1996 at age 59.
Image 1: Madeleine Albright.
Image 2: Barbara Jordan.
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