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Queer Trivia
She was an American lawyer, educator, and politician.
Born on February 21, 1936, in Houston’s Fifth Ward, she was raised in a deeply religious household rooted in the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Her mother, who worked as both a maid and a church teacher, and her father, a Baptist preacher and warehouse worker, instilled in her a strong connection to faith and community. As a child, she often recited poetry during services and sang gospel music alongside her sisters.
Through her mother’s lineage, she was the great-granddaughter of Edward Patton, one of the last African American legislators in the Texas House of Representatives before the disenfranchisement of Black Texans under Jim Crow laws.
She traced her inspiration to become an attorney back to a speech she heard in high school by Edith S. Sampson. Due to segregation, she was barred from attending the University of Texas at Austin and instead enrolled at Texas Southern University, a historically Black institution, where she majored in political science and history. There, she excelled as a national champion debater under the mentorship of coach Thomas Freeman, defeating teams from Yale and Brown and tying with Harvard. She graduated magna cum laude in 1956, then went on to earn her law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1959.
In 1966, she was elected to the Texas Legislature as one of the first three African American members since 1896, making history as the first Black woman to serve in the body. At the time, the Texas Senate was composed of thirty-one white men and her alone. She faced both racism and sexism from her colleagues during her tenure. Re-elected in 1968, she served in the Senate until 1972. During that time, she became the first African American woman to serve as president pro tempore of the Texas Senate and, on June 10, 1972, held the position of acting governor of Texas for one day.
That same year, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first woman elected in her own right to represent Texas in Congress. Her campaign and early legislative career received strong support from former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who helped her secure a coveted seat on the House Judiciary Committee.
In 1976, she was mentioned as a potential running mate for presidential candidate Jimmy Carter of Georgia but instead made history as the first African American woman to deliver a keynote address at a major political party's national convention.
She retired from politics in 1978 due to declining health and went on to serve as an adjunct professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Although she never publicly identified as lesbian or queer, the U.S. National Archives has recognized her as the first LGBTQ+ woman to serve in the United States Congress. She shared a home in Austin, Texas, with Nancy Earl, with whom she had a close, decades-long relationship. Throughout her political career, she faced homophobic attacks, and advisors often urged her to keep her personal life out of the public eye. Following their guidance, she kept her sexual orientation private, sharing that part of her identity only in trusted, personal circles.
She passed away on January 17, 1996, at the Austin Diagnostic Medical Center in Austin, Texas, at the age of 59. The cause of death was complications from pneumonia and leukemia. In the years leading up to her passing, she had also been living with multiple sclerosis.
Do you know her name? The answer is at the bottom of the email.
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