By Gina Watts, Reference Librarian

To celebrate the Texas Center for the Book’s 2019 Texas Great Read selection, “What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan” by Chris Barton and illustrated by Ekua Holmes, our new featured collection focuses on the subject of that book, Barbara Jordan.

Jordan, a former Texas Senator and Representative in the U.S. Congress, was a skilled orator known for her deep, very recognizable voice. The video on the Texas Great Read page provides an excellent sampling.
Along with books about the notable Texan, the featured collection includes titles in which the authors have employed the use of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission’s diverse and fascinating collections, especially those with audiovisual components.
Take a look through the Visions and Voices of Texas titles below:
Barbara Jordan
James Haskins
328.73092 J761H
Main
Barbara Jordan, a self-portrait
Barbara Jordan and Shelby Hearon
923.2764 J761b
Main
Barbara Jordan : American hero
Mary Beth Rogers
923.2764 J761r
Main
Barbara Jordan : freedom medalist and Texas treasure
Crystal Sasse Ragsdale
P2350.8 B232
Texas Documents
Barbara Jordan : speaking the truth with eloquent thunder
Barbara Jordan and Max Sherman
Z UA380.8 J761BA
Texas Documents
Breaking the ice : the racial integration of Southwest Conference Football
Richard Pennington
796.332 P384B
Main
Houston Cougars in the 1960s : death threats, the veer offense, and the game of the century
Robert Jacobus
Z TA475.8 J159ho
Texas Documents
Thursday night lights : the story of Black high school football in Texas
Michael Hurd
Z UA380.8 H934th
Texas Documents
Tomlinson Hill : the remarkable story of two families who share the Tomlinson name – one white, one black
Chris Tomlinson
305.896 T597t
Main
Wil the thrill : the untold story of Wilbert Montgomery
Edward J Robinson
Z TT422.8 R561wi
Texas Documents
The Carrasco tragedy : eleven days of terror in the Huntsville prison
Aline House
365.641 H816C
Main
Eleven days in hell : the 1974 Carrasco prison siege in Huntsville, Texas
William T Harper
Z N745.7 C868crj NO.3
Main
Texas state parks and the CCC : the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps First edition.
Cynthia A Brandimarte
Z TA475.8 B733te
Texas Documents
Fighting their own battles : Mexican Americans, African Americans, and the struggle for civil rights in Texas
Brian D Behnken
305.8 B395f
Main
Landscapes of exclusion : state parks and Jim Crow in the American South
William E O’Brien
305.8 OB69LA
Main
Who gets a childhood? : race and juvenile justice in twentieth-century Texas
William S Bush
364.36 B963w
Main
Parks for Texas : enduring landscapes of the new deal
James Wright Steely
333.783 St325p
Main
Please pass the biscuits, Pappy : pictures of Governor W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel
Bill Crawford
976.4063 OD1p
Main
Ten dollars to hate : the Texas man who fought the Klan
Patricia Bernstein
Z TA475.8 B458te
Texas Documents
The featured collection display is on view in the Reference Reading Room in the Lorenzo de Zavala Texas State Archives and Library building at 1201 Brazos St. Austin, Texas 78701. For more information about the books and other materials available at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, contact the Reference staff at ref@tsl.texas.gov or 512-436-5455.