Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (August 15, 1935 – March 1, 2021) was an American business executive and civil rights attorney who worked for various civil rights movement organizations before becoming a close advisor to President Bill Clinton.
Jordan grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated in 1957 from DePauw University. In the early 1960s, he started his civil rights career, most notably being a part of a team of lawyers that desegregated the University 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 the 2004 election, he worked for John Kerry's campaign.
Early life and education
Jordan was born on August 15, 1935, in Atlanta, 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 as The Mighty Hannibal.[2]
While still with the National Urban League, Jordan in 1981 said of the Ronald Reagan administration:
I do not challenge the conservatism of this administration. I do challenge its failure to exhibit a compassionate 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 the Dallas law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.[13]
Assassination attempt
On May 29, 1980, Jordan was shot and seriously wounded outside the Marriott Inn in Fort 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-president Jimmy Carter visited Jordan while he was recovering, an event that became the first story covered by the new network CNN.[15]
Terrorist and neo-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]
Clinton administration
Vernon Jordan shares conversation with famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. At the time, Jordan was visiting President Clinton on the island of Martha's Vineyard.
Jordan, a friend and political adviser to Bill Clinton, served as part of Clinton's transition team in 1992–1993, shortly after Clinton was elected president. In the words of The 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 with Zoë 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 of Vincent W. Foster Jr. in 1993). Conduit to the high and mighty (he took Mr. Clinton in 1991 to the Bilderberg conference in Germany, an exclusive annual retreat for politicians and businessmen). Go-between (he told Mike Espy he had to go as secretary of agriculture, helped win Warren Christopher a larger role as secretary of state and sounded out Gen. Colin L. Powell for a Cabinet job).[17]
In 1998 Jordan helped Monica Lewinsky, a former White 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 by independent counselKenneth Starr.[18] On October 1, 2003, a United States court of appeals rejected Jordan's claim for reimbursement for legal services related to assisting Clinton in scandals regarding Lewinsky and Paula Jones. Jordan asked the government to pay him $302,719, but he was paid only $1,215.[19]
In the 2004 presidential campaign, Jordan led debate preparation and negotiation efforts on behalf of John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president.[24] That year he was elected president of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.[25]
In 2006, Jordan served as a member of the Iraq 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 of Syracuse 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]
Marriage and family
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 for Wells Fargo and FGS Global.[32]
In 1986 he remarried, to Ann 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]
His memoir, Vernon Can Read! (2001), covered his life through the 1980s, and was written with historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed.[34]
A collection of his public speeches, with commentary, called Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out (2008)[35]
Jordan also served as the narrator for American composer Joseph Schwantner'sNew Morning for the World: "Daybreak of Freedom," a collection of quotations from various speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.[36][37]
^"Barbara Tober to be Honored at 8 Over 80 Gala". The National Institute Of Social Sciences. April 2, 2017. Other honorees include designer Iris Apfel, actress, dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, television producer Norman Lear...
