Vernon Jordan | |
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 Jordan in 1973 | |
| Born | Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (1935-08-15)August 15, 1935 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | March 1, 2021(2021-03-01) (aged 85) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1960–2021 |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 5 (1 with Yarbrough, 4 by marriage with Ann Cook) |
| Relatives | The Mighty Hannibal (cousin) |
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (August 15, 1935 – March 1, 2021) was an American business executive and civil rights attorney who worked for variouscivil rights movement organizations before becoming a close advisor to PresidentBill Clinton.
Jordan grew up inAtlanta, Georgia, and graduated in 1957 fromDePauw University. In the early 1960s, he started his civil rights career, most notably being a part of a team of lawyers that desegregated theUniversity of Georgia. He then continued to work for multiple civil rights organizations until the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he became a close ally and friend of Bill Clinton and he served as part of Clinton's transition team. After Clinton's departure, Jordan began working with multiple corporations and investment banking firms up until his death. During the2004 election, he worked forJohn Kerry's campaign.
Jordan was born on August 15, 1935, inAtlanta, Georgia, to Mary Belle (Griggs) and Vernon E. Jordan Sr.[1] He had a brother, Windsor. He was a cousin of James Shaw, a musician who was professionally billed asThe Mighty Hannibal.[2]
Jordan grew up with his family in theracially segregated Southern United States.[3] He was an honors graduate ofDavid T. Howard High School. Rejected for a summer internship with an insurance company after his sophomore year in college because of his race, he earned money for college for a few summers by working as a chauffeur to former city mayorRobert Maddox, then a banker. Jordan graduated fromDePauw University inGreencastle, Indiana, in 1957.[4] In an oral history interview archived at theLouie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, an interview conducted in 1964 withRobert Penn Warren for the bookWho Speaks for the Negro?, Jordan described his difficulties at DePauw as the only black student in a class of 400.[5] He earned aJuris Doctor atHoward University School of Law in 1960. He was a member of theOmega Psi Phi andSigma Pi Phi fraternities.[6][7]
Jordan returned to Atlanta to join the law office ofDonald L. Hollowell, acivil rights activist.[8][9] The firm, includingConstance Motley, sued theUniversity of Georgia forracial discrimination in its admission policies.[9] The suit ended in 1961 with aFederal Court order demanding the admission of two African Americans,Charlayne Hunter andHamilton E. Holmes. Jordan personally escorted Hunter past a group of angry white protesters to the university admissions office.[9]
After leaving private law practice in the early 1960s, Jordan became directly involved in activism in the field, serving as the Georgia field director for theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People.[10] From the NAACP, he moved to theSouthern Regional Council and then to theVoter Education Project.[10]
In 1970, Jordan became executive director of theUnited Negro College Fund.[11] He was president of theNational Urban League from 1971 to 1981.
While still with the National Urban League, Jordan in 1981 said of theRonald Reagan administration:
I do not challenge the conservatism of this administration. I do challenge its failure to exhibit acompassionate conservatism that adapts itself to the realities of a society ridden by class and race distinction.[12]
That year he resigned from the National Urban League to take a position as legal counsel with the Washington, D.C., office of theDallas law firm ofAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.[13]
On May 29, 1980, Jordan was shot and seriously wounded outside the Marriott Inn inFort Wayne, Indiana. He was accompanied by Martha Coleman at the time. Police thought initially that it might have been a domestic incident related to Coleman's life.[14]
Then-presidentJimmy Carter visited Jordan while he was recovering, an event that became the first story covered by the new networkCNN.[15]
Terrorist andneo-NaziJoseph Paul Franklin was charged with attempted murder but acquitted in 1982. However, in 1996, after being convicted of murder in another case, Franklin admitted to having committed the shooting.[16]
Jordan, a friend and political adviser toBill Clinton, served as part of Clinton's transition team in 1992–1993, shortly after Clinton was electedpresident. In the words ofThe New York Times:
For Mr. Clinton, Mr. Jordan's roles have been manifold: Golfing companion. Smoother of ruffled feathers (he put the president back in touch withZoë Baird after the withdrawal of her nomination to be attorney general). Consoler in chief (after Mr. Clinton was defeated for re-election as governor in 1980, after the suicide ofVincent W. Foster Jr. in 1993). Conduit to the high and mighty (he took Mr. Clinton in 1991 to theBilderberg conference in Germany, an exclusive annual retreat for politicians and businessmen). Go-between (he toldMike Espy he had to go as secretary of agriculture, helped winWarren Christopher a larger role as secretary of state and sounded out Gen.Colin L. Powell for a Cabinet job).[17]
In 1998 Jordan helpedMonica Lewinsky, a formerWhite House intern, find a job after she left the White House, and recommended an attorney.[18] His role was considered controversial given the scandal that the Clinton administration had suffered because of the president's involvement with the intern, and Jordan testified several times before the grand jury convened byindependent counselKenneth Starr.[18] On October 1, 2003, aUnited States court of appeals rejected Jordan's claim for reimbursement for legal services related to assisting Clinton in scandals regarding Lewinsky andPaula Jones. Jordan asked the government to pay him $302,719, but he was paid only $1,215.[19]
In 1998, Jordan was interviewed byCBS news television program60 Minutes.[20]
In theimpeachment trial of Bill Clinton, Jordan was one of three individuals (with Lewinsky andSidney Blumenthal) of whom House impeachment managers recorded adeposition.[21]
From January 2000 on, Jordan was a senior managing director withLazard Freres & Co. LLC, an investment banking firm.[22] He was also a member of the board of directors of multiple corporations, includingAmerican Express,J.C. Penney Corporation,Asbury Automotive Group, and theDow Jones & Company.[23]
He was a member of the board of directors ofRevlon,Sara Lee,Corning,Xerox, andRJR Nabisco during the 1989 leveraged buyout fight between RJR Nabisco CEOF. Ross Johnson andHenry R. Kravis and his companyKKR.[23] A close friend of Jordan's was the Xerox tycoonCharles Peter McColough, who persuaded Jordan to join theboard of trustees at Xerox.[23] McColough served as a mentor and friend of Jordan's until McColough's death.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, Jordan led debate preparation and negotiation efforts on behalf ofJohn Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president.[24] That year he was elected president ofThe Economic Club of Washington, D.C.[25]
In 2006, Jordan served as a member of theIraq Study Group, which was formed to make recommendations on U.S. policy in Iraq.[26]
In May 2017, Jordan served as the commencement speaker at the 163rd commencement ofSyracuse University.[27][28]
Jordan died at his home in Washington, D.C., on March 1, 2021, at the age of 85, and was buried in Washington, D.C.'s Oak Hill Cemetery.[29][30]
Jordan married Shirley (née Yarbrough), who died in 1985. They have a daughter,[31] Vickee Jordan Adams,[23] who has worked in public and media relations forWells Fargo andFGS Global.[32]
In 1986 he remarried, toAnn Dibble Jordan and adopted her four children - Antoinette "Toni", Mercer, Janice and Jacqueline.[23] He has nine grandchildren, seven from his second wife's children, Janice, Mercer, and Toni.[33]
Jordan also served as the narrator for American composerJoseph Schwantner'sNew Morning for the World: "Daybreak of Freedom," a collection of quotations from various speeches byMartin Luther King Jr.[36][37]
Other honorees include designer Iris Apfel, actress, dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade,civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, television producer Norman Lear...
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