HOUSTON — U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Houston, was the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South, serving on the influential House Judiciary Committee. She made Texas history as the first Black woman to win a primary race for the state Legislature. And while in the Texas Senate, in 1971, Jordan drew the boundaries for Houston’s 18th Congressional District that she went on to represent.
“The 18th Congressional District, up until now, had really remained pretty much intact and had always been the place where leading black politicians have emerged to have incredible influence and important national voices,” said Mary Ellen Curtin, a professor of American studies at American University.
The Black Democrats who have represented the 18th Distrct include Mickey Leland and Craig Washington. Sheila Jackson Lee served for 15 terms representing the district in Congress and died in office in 2024. Since then, there has been inconsistent representation. Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, served out her term for less than a year.
After the death of the next representative, Sylvester Turner, in March 2025, the seat was left vacant until the election of Christian Menefee last month.
“She started that legacy,” said Curtin. “And we’re seeing now that that is definitely in question.”
A letter from the U.S. Department of Justice directed the Texas Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map last summer to create five winnable Republican districts.
“These maps before us diminish the voting power of Black and Brown communities who have fought for generations for that access and that power,” said state Rep. Toni Rose, a Dallas Democrat, during floor debate over the new congressional map.
The letter declared four coalition districts where multiple minority groups are the majority as unconstitutional. Republicans testified that the new map was drawn based on partisan votes in the 2024 election. Still, the new map created two districts where Black voters are the majority: the 30th Congressional District in Dallas and the 18th District.
“I haven’t been to third grade in a really long time but when you go from zero to two, that’s an increase… more and more minority voters are voting their values not their skin color,” said state Rep. Katrina Pierson, a North Texas Republican, during floor debate over the new congressional map.
The new congressional map redraws the 18th District on the south of the city and resembles the old 9th Congressional District, which is currently held by longtime U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston.
Green, who is running for the newly redrawn 18th District, says his concern is for the Black voters left in the new 9th District, which Trump would’ve won by 15 points.
“I don’t know that these other districts are going to treat them as I would because they may be in a Republican area, which means that they may have less influence with that member than they would have in this new 18th Congressional District,” said Green.
Mary Ellen Curtin, who authored a book about Barbara Jordan’s legacy, describes the reshaping of Houston’s districts as a new form of disenfranchisement of Black voters that Jordan fought against.
“She understood that without this, people would lose faith in democracy and would no longer feel like the concept that they were included in this Constitution,” said Curtin.
Jordan’s fight for the inclusion of Black voices in Congress may be curtailed this election cycle, but Democrats who may be down a party member in the nation’s capital are committed to being a voice for the Black Texans they feel are left without fair representation.