COLUMBIA, Mo. – The enormously favorable impressions made by the late Barbara Jordan as a freshman state senator in Texas in 1967 and as a freshman member of Congress in 1973 have never before or since been equaled in the annals of representative government.

Perhaps, they never will. Even decades later, in this politically redefining era of the rightward-leaning tea party, hers remains an unequaled standard as congressional debuts go.

Jordan would have been 75 this month but many still remember her electrifying debut on live television when, as a first-term representative, she was chosen to give opening remarks at House Judiciary Committee hearings on the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. Televised congressional proceedings, commonplace today, were rare in 1974.

On that historic evening, Jordan’s resonant voice bellowed with unwavering conviction:

“My faith in the Constitution is whole. It is complete. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.”

Network anchors were literally awestruck by Jordan’s remarks, and her self-assured delivery. Much of the next day’s published commentary said her words touched the conscience of the nation. She had begun by noting that in their first iteration, the words “We the People” didn’t include people of color.

“I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake,” she mused, whimsically but with didactic seriousness.

“But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people,’ ” she continued.

As the world and the punditry raved about this powerful and persuasive speech, I was reminded of another great speech, one not recorded in any history books, which was also powerful and persuasive. Before Jordan’s unforgettable voice of authority and moral conviction was ever heard in the then all-white and all-male Texas state Senate, or in the halls of Congress, it inspired the 1966 graduating class of Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.

It is a day that my fellow BTW classmates and I still remember remarkably well.

Before she died, I had a friendly, good-natured “bet” with Jordan, with a lunch tab at stake, that I could remember more about what she said in her address to the 1966 graduating class at Washington High School than she could.

Had we ever followed up – and one of my great regrets in life is that we didn’t – I most definitely would have won that “bet.” I always knew that. But I’m even more certain now because of what I heard from classmates I e-mailed in preparation for this remembrance. Their recollections of what Jordan said in that address nearly 45 years ago closely parallel.

Jordan told us in 1966 that opportunities come to those who seize them; that time waits for no one; and that obstacles in life should be regarded as challenges to be overcome. As we thought about our futures, she wanted us to know that the saddest regrets would be those of people who looked back on what might have been had they made the effort.

And she implored us to endeavor to do good, and try to make a difference, in a changing world much in need of good works.

My “bet” with her was my silly way of telling Jordan she had been a true and significant inspiration, long before she was famous; long before she had the stage, the spotlight or the bully pulpit given to those who assume mantles of leadership in public life.

For some reason, that mattered to me. And when I reminisce about it with fellow Washington High alums, they all understand why it mattered to tell Jordan that.

In her public persona, Jordan was a leader of enormous stature and presence, commanding respect, even deference. But it belied an approachable, unassuming modesty that made her exceptionally amiable in personal encounters.Jordan never entered presidential politics. But in a 1975 Cosmopolitan magazine survey about women national opinion leaders would like to see as president, Jordan topped the list. She was prominently mentioned as a potential running mate after Jimmy Carter sewed up the Democratic nomination in 1976. Twice she delivered keynote addresses to Democratic National Conventions.

And, on a spring day in 1966, she excited and inspired a graduating class at Washington High School, who fondly remember and greatly appreciate what she had to say.