Barbara Jordan, 1977

Last week I ran across these wonderful images of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan speaking in the spring of 1977. I’d never seen the room before and so wasn’t at all certain that they had been taken at Rice but we seem to have reached consensus that she was in the old Wiess Commons. True or false?

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This is my favorite of the batch:

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I don’t think there’s going to be another one like her anytime soon.

Bonus: The radioactive stuff goes out the back window.

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8 Responses to Barbara Jordan, 1977

  1. Kathleen Boyd says:

    I was there, Melissa. It was Wiess Commons.

    Kathleen A. Boyd

    Kathleen.A.Boyd@gmail.com 713-306-4665 http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenaboyd/

    Sent from my iPhone

  2. That is the stage used for “Hello, Hamlet”, though I think there was different Weiss Tabletop production that year.

    When I was there, that was the “new” Weiss Commons. It had been recently remodeled.

    Thresher article: “Jordan Speaks for Weiss Lecture Series Sat.” It was in Weiss Commons.

    http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245330/m1/1/

    • Krammit says:

      Judging from the columns on the set it might have been A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Wiess Tabletop performed the musical that year.

  3. loki_the_bubba says:

    At no time was I ever in Weiss commons sober or with the lights on.

  4. Krammit says:

    That’s Ken Madsen on the stage with Jordan. He might have been Social VP at Wiess that year but he frequently served as MC. I thought that the Rice Democratic Caucus was somehow involved in arranging for Jordan to come speak. It might be Dr. Parish in the crowd photo, the back of a balding head just left of center.
    And as Walter says, this is the new commons at old Wiess. The commons was remodeled one summer, probably 1974. It was greatly enlarged to include a mezzanine recreation area. One side was pushed out and enclosed in large windows that let in the natural light. It was a big improvement over the cramped and stifling original. I think that the design was a class project by two Wiess archies, Tim “Frog” Barry and Dan Canty. They really did a nice job. But the furniture was selected by Wiess Master Stewart Baker and, in all seriousness, he was said to have been somewhat colorblind.

  5. Marty Merritt (Hanszen '84/85) says:

    Yes, purple and green. Remember it well. I think there was some yellow in there, too.

  6. Rodney Hoffman (Hanszen '72) says:

    She ate dinner at Hanszen once while she was a state senator. She happened to sit at the same table where I was.

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