Barbara Jordan, lawyer, congresswoman, teacher and inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame, is remembered by Texans -- and Houstonians especially -- as a treasure. The Alley Theatre acknowledges her unique contributions to the law and African American history with Barbara Jordan: Texas Treasure, touring Houston schools throughout the month of Feb., Black History Month.

Lynda Gravatt wrote and stars in the solo show, which traces Jordan's beginning in Houston's Fifth Ward through her education at Texas Southern University and Boston University to the home law practice that lead all the way to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate Hearings. She taught, despite debilitating multiple sclerosis, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton in 1994. Jordan died in 1996.

Gravatt recently appeared in If Memory Serves Off-Broadway. Other credits include Off-Broadway productions of The Old Settler and the Alley and Huntington Theatre productions of The Young Man from Atlanta.

Glenda Dickerson directs. A writer, folklorist, educator and actor, Dickerson has worked with Angela Bassett, Debbie Allen, Lynn Whitfield and Robert Townsend and conceived and directed Eel Catching in Setauket: A Living Portrait of a Community, an oral history of the African-American Christian Avenue community in Setauket, Long Island.

Past Alley Living History productions have included Harriet Returns For Us, written by and starring Gravatt as Harriet Tubman, and John & Juan, a Hispanic Heritage Month play about the shared histories of Texas and Mexico. -- By Christine Ehren