Of course, Jordan came to the House in 1973 with certain advantages. Her reputation as the first black woman elected to Congress from the South preceded her. And while there were dozens of look-alike white male freshmen, no one was likely to confuse Barbara Jordan with anyone else. Still, it was another black woman Yvonne Braithwaite Burke of Los Angeles who was singled out as the real star; Burke had been temporary chairman of the 1972 Democratic Convention and her picture, not Jordan’s, dominated the women’s pages. Burke and Jordan were the two fledgling Democrats singled out by the Kennedy Institute at Harvard to attend a special month-long seminar just before they took office (William Cohen of Maine and Alan Steelman of Texas were the Republicans). Not once during that month did the two black women discuss any unique problems they might encounter in an overwhelmingly white male institution.
AP
Former state Sen. Bill Morris of Waukegan has some advice for the 19 House Democrats who want to overthrow Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“They have to come up with a better name,” said Morris, a member of the so-called Crazy Eight group of independent-minded Democrats who sparked a six-week battle in 1977 for the Illinois Senate presidency.
Morris was mostly joking. “The 19,” as the group is currently known, has bigger challenges than what to call itself, not least of which is how to become 60 the number needed to choose a speaker.
But a cohesive identity that captured the public imagination was no doubt an asset for the Crazy Eight during the protracted 1977 holdout that ended with Democrat Tom Hynes of Chicago being elected on the 186th ballot.