| Birth Day | November 27, 1944 |
| Birth Place | Texas |
| Age | 76 YEARS OLD |
| Died On | Aug 7, 1989 (age 44) |
| Birth Sign | Sagittarius |
African-American Democratic Politician and eighteenth-district Texas member of the United States House of Representatives. During his 1979-1989 congressional tenure, he chaired the Congressional Black Caucus.
After studying at Houston's Wheatley High School, he graduated from Texas Southern University.
He was the subject of a 1991 song by folk musician Pierce Pettis.
He was raised in Lubbock and Houston, Texas. He died at the age of forty four in an airplane crash in Ethiopia.
He and Barbara Jordan were among the first Texas-born African-Americans to serve in the United States House of Representatives.
