Precinct One to break ground on community center at Barbara Jordan Park
Facility will provide recreational and social activities for northeast Houston community
Commissioner Gene L. Locke, along with other invited elected officials and community leaders, will break ground on the 12,460-square-foot Barbara Jordan Community Center in a northeast Houston park that also bears the late congresswoman’s name.
“In a sense, this project honors two Houston political icons – Barbara Jordan and the late Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee,” said Commissioner Locke, who succeeded Lee. “The park and the community center pay tribute to Jordan’s remarkable work as lawyer, educator, politician and civil rights leader. It’s important to me to get this construction underway because Commissioner Lee started this project to pay homage to Jordan’s legacy.”
In addition to a museum with Jordan’s memorabilia, the single-story structure also will house spaces for arts-and-crafts, special events and exercising – all of which will benefit community residents. The building will be constructed near the existing Community Center, which will be demolished after the facility is completed in late 2017.
Jordan, a Houston native who died in 1996, was the first African-American woman elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.