Vernon Jordan

Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. (born August 15, 1935) is an American business executive and civil rights activist in the United States. After working for several Civil Rights Movement organizations, he was chosen by President Bill Clinton as a close adviser. Jordan has become known as an influential figure in American politics.

Vernon Jordan
Born
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr.

(1935-08-15) August 15, 1935
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
EducationDePauw University (BA)
Howard University (JD)
OccupationAttorney, business executive and civil rights activist
Years active1960–present
Spouse(s)Shirley Yarbrough (Deceased 1985)
Ann Dibble (1986–present)
Children1 daughter (with Yarbrough)

Early life and education

Vernon Jordan was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Mary Jordan and Vernon E. Jordan Sr.; he has a brother, Windsor. He is the cousin of James Shaw, a musician who is professionally billed as The Mighty Hannibal.[1]

Jordan grew up with his family in Atlanta's segregated society during the 1950s. He was an honor graduate of David Tobias Howard High School. Rejected for a summer intern's job with an insurance company after his sophomore year in college because of his race, he earned money for a few summers for college by working as a chauffeur to former city mayor Robert Maddox, then a banker. Jordan graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1957.[2] In an interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Jordan described his difficulties at DePauw as the only black student in a class of 400.[3] He earned a J.D. degree at Howard University School of Law in 1960. He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities.

Jordan returned to Atlanta to join the law office of Donald L. Hollowell, a civil rights activist. The firm, including Constance Motley, sued the University of Georgia for racial discrimination in its admission policies. The suit ended in 1961 with a Federal Court order demanding the admission of two African Americans, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton E. Holmes. Jordan personally escorted Hunter past a group of angry white protesters to the university admissions office.

Jordan working on a voter education project in 1967.

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 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. From the NAACP, he moved to the Southern Regional Council and then to the Voter Education Project.

In 1970, Jordan became executive director of the United Negro College Fund.[4] He was president of the National Urban League from 1971 to 1981.

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.[5]

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.

Murder 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.[6] Then-president Jimmy Carter visited Jordan while he was recovering, an event that became the first story covered by the new network CNN.[7] Joseph Paul Franklin was acquitted in 1982 of charges of attempted murder. However, in 1996, after having been convicted of murder in another case, Franklin admitted to having committed the shooting.[8]

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 1992–93, 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).[9]

In 1998 Jordan helped Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, after she left the White House. His role was considered controversial given the scandal that the Clinton administration had suffered because of the president's involvement with the intern.[10] 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.[11]

in 1998 Jordan was interviewed by CBS news show 60 Minutes.

Recent activities
Jordan at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2019.

Jordan is the only black person who has participated in more than a few Bilderberg conferences. He was invited in 1969 and 1970 and then almost every year between 1979 and 2013 according to the official reports and lists of participants.[12][13]

Since January 2000, Jordan has been senior managing director with Lazard Freres & Co. LLC, an investment banking firm. He is also a member of the board of directors of multiple corporations, including American Express, J.C. Penney Corporation, Asbury Automotive Group, and the Dow Jones & Company.

He has been a member of the board of directors of Revlon, Sara Lee, Corning, Xerox, and RJR Nabisco during the 1989 leveraged buyout fight between RJR Nabisco CEO F. Ross Johnson and Henry R. Kravis and his company KKR. A close friend of Jordan was the late Xerox tycoon Charles Peter McColough, who persuaded Jordan to join the board of trustees at Xerox. 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 of John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president.[14] That year he was elected president of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

In 2006, Jordan served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, which was formed to make recommendations on U.S. policy in Iraq.[15]

In May 2017, Jordan served as the commencement speaker at the 163rd commencement of Syracuse University.[16][17]

Marriage and family

Jordan married Shirley (née Yarbrough), who died in 1985. They have a daughter,[18] Vickee Jordan Adams,[19] who works in media relations for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

In 1986 he remarried, to Ann Dibble Jordan.[19] He has nine grandchildren, seven from his second wife's children, Janice, Mercer, and Toni.[20]

Publications
External video
Booknotes interview with Jordan on Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, December 23, 2001, C-SPAN
  • His memoir, Vernon Can Read! (2001), covered his life through the 1980s, and was written with historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed.
  • A collection of his public speeches, with commentary, called Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out (2008)[21] (Public Affairs, 2008).

Jordan also served as the narrator for American composer Joseph Schwantner's New Morning for the World: "Daybreak of Freedom," a collection of quotations from various speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.[22][23]

Legacy and honors

Representation in other media
  • His role in the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was satirized on Saturday Night Live by Tim Meadows, who sang "I am Vernon Jordan."[27]
  • Jordan made a cameo appearance in the 1998 film Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton.
  • In May and October, 2010, Jordan made two cameo appearances in the CBS television series The Good Wife.
  • In April 2019, Jordan made a cameo appearance in the CBS All Access television series The Good Fight.
gollark: Just try it.
gollark: I've seen about as many as xenowyrms. Possibly due to biome choice.
gollark: Ah, suggestions/requests.
gollark: Where is this "pagination"?
gollark: Such is gendering.

References
  1. Duffy, John. "The Mighty Hannibal". Allmusic. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
  2. Vernon Jordan: More than a "First Friend", The Harbus Online, 12/03/2001
  3. Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. "Vernon E. Jordan, Jr". Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  4. An Historical Look At the Impact of the United Negro College Fund and its Member Institutions on American History, UNCF.
  5. The New York Times, 23 July 1981, p. 17.
  6. Moore Hall, Sarah (June 16, 1980). "Martha Coleman, the Shadowy Figure in the Vernon Jordan Case, Has Led a Troubled Life". People Magazine. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
  7. "CNN First Hour: June 1, 1980". June 11, 2012 – via YouTube.
  8. Associated Press (April 9, 1996). "Racist Admits Sniper Attack On Rights Chief Vernon Jordan Franklin Was Acquitted In Trial 14 Years Ago But Now Admits It". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  9. R. W. Apple, Jr., "THE PRESIDENT UNDER FIRE: THE POWER BROKER; Jordan Trades Stories With Clinton, and Offers Counsel". The New York Times (January 25, 1998).
  10. PBS, ''THE STARR INVESTIGATION'', March 3, 1998, ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' Transcript. Pbs.org.
  11. "Washington: Request For Legal Fees Rejected". The New York Times (October 1, 2003).
  12. https://www.scribd.com/user/236633841/bilderbergboys
  13. http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org
  14. Vernon Jordan '57 Named John Kerry's Lead Debate Negotiator & Elected President of Economic Club of Washington, DePauw University News, June 28, 2004
  15. Iraq Study Group Members Archived January 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, United States Institute of Peace
  16. "Vernon E. Jordan Jr. to Deliver Syracuse University's 2017 Commencement Address". SU News. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  17. "Vernon Jordan draws parallels between current political climate and civil rights era in 2017 commencement speech". The Daily Orange - The Independent Student Newspaper of Syracuse, New York. May 14, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  18. "Vickee S. Jordan And B. M. Adams To Marry in June". The New York Times. May 1, 1988. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  19. Fromson, Brett D. (February 6, 1998). "Jordan's 10 Board Positions Worth $1.1 Million". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  20. "Vernon Jordan on Politics, Obama and Civil Rights". NPR. November 19, 2008.
  21. Make It Plain Archived December 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. PublicAffairs Books.
  22. ''New Morning for the World'', Joseph Schwantner Works List. Schwantner.net.
  23. Joseph Schwantner Discography. Schwantner.net.
  24. "Former Steering Committee Members | Bilderberg Meetings" Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Bilderberg Meetings
  25. "Spingarn Medals Awarded", Louisville Free Public Library
  26. "Annette Gordon-Reed '84 to join the Harvard faculty". Law.harvard.edu. April 30, 2010. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
  27. Season 28, Episode 12. Snltranscripts.jt.org.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.