The University of Texas campus in Austin has never before featured a public statue of a woman until now. A new statue of former US Representative Barbara Jordan, will be unveiled there today. KERA’s Ilan Goddard has more.

In the fall of 2002 an all female honors organization called the Orange Jackets noted that of all the statues on the UT campus, there were no women represented and they set out to change that. Sherri Sanders, the Barbara Jordan Statue Project Director explains why the group felt Jordan was the best fit.

Sanders: They were drawn to Jordan because of all the firsts that she had done in her life what she had done for the state of Texas, for our country and it was also important to them that it be someone that was a part of UT Austin.

Commissioned by sculptor Bruce Wolfe, this will be the second Statue of Barbara Jordan by Wolfe. The first sits in the Barbra Jordan Terminal at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The unveiling will take place at noon today in front of the Student Union.

KUT Austin public radio documentary about Barbara Jordan.