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Jordan and President Clinton |
Jordan was honored
with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton on August 8,
1994. Surrounded by sisters Bennie and
Rose Mary and close friend Nancy Earl, Jordan’s co-recipients included Mexican
American activist Cesar Chavez (posthumously), Sargent Shriver, and in a
strange coincidence, civil rights activist and former National President of the
Delta Sigma Theta sorority Dorothy Height—Height’s signature appears on Jordan’s
Delta pledge certificate, dated 1953.
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Jordan, the Clintons and sisters Rose Mary (left) and Bennie |
In another interesting coincidence, former Senator and
astronaut John Glenn also received a Presidential Medal of Freedom yesterday—Glenn was one of
two keynote speakers at the 1976 Democratic Convention, along with Jordan. Jordan made one of her most famous
speeches at this convention, hyping up the crowd so much that Jordan’s name
was bandied about as a possible Vice Presidential running mate for Jimmy Carter
(and Jordan actually secured one nomination as a presidential candidate at the
convention). Glenn, in contrast, gave a much more subdued speech that was not nearly as well received as Jordan’s had been—Glenn
noted in his autobiography that “Jordan was a hard act to follow.”
Jordan was buried with her Presidential Medal of Freedom in
1996.
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