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Barbara Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up during a time of racial segregation throughout the South. As an African American, she became increasingly aware of the limitations imposed by segregation when she traveled outside the South as a member of the Texas Southern University debate team in the early 1950s. In 1959 she earned a law degree at racially integrated Boston University and then returned to Houston, where she began her law practice and soon became involved in politics.