Vernon Jordan Biography Quotes 11 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was born on August 15, 1935, in Atlanta, Georgia, into a segregated world that shaped both his resolve and his vocation. His father, Vernon Sr., worked for the U.S. Postal Service, and his mother, Mary Jordan, was a skilled caterer whose enterprise introduced him early to the discipline and dignity of hard work. He attended Atlanta public schools and graduated from David T. Howard High School, where he excelled academically and athletically. With the backing of mentors who recognized his promise, he left the Jim Crow South to attend DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, one of a handful of Black students on campus. At DePauw he majored in political science, joined Kappa Alpha Psi, and learned to navigate predominantly white institutions with insistence, grace, and strategic patience. He went on to Howard University School of Law, earning a J.D. in 1960.

A formative moment from his youth would later title his memoir, "Vernon Can Read!" As a summer employee in a segregated Atlanta law office, a white partner, startled by his poise and preparation, blurted those words. Jordan filed the memory not as a compliment but as a measure of the distance he and his generation were determined to travel.

Civil Rights Law and the University of Georgia Case
After law school, Jordan returned to Atlanta to join the firm of Donald L. Hollowell, a leading civil rights attorney. In 1961 he worked alongside Hollowell and the NAACPs Constance Baker Motley on the landmark effort to desegregate the University of Georgia. When the federal court ordered the admission of two Black students, Charlayne Hunter (later Charlayne Hunter-Gault) and Hamilton Holmes, Jordan personally escorted Hunter through a hostile crowd to register for classes, an image that fixed him in the public eye as an unflinching advocate. He soon became the Georgia field director for the NAACP, where he organized communities and pressed school districts and public institutions to comply with desegregation orders.

Jordan later worked with the Southern Regional Councils Voter Education Project, coordinating efforts that helped register hundreds of thousands of Black voters across the South. The work was unglamorous and often dangerous, but it built lasting political power and deepened his connections to movement leaders such as Roy Wilkins and a rising generation of local organizers.

United Negro College Fund and National Urban League
In 1970 Jordan became executive director of the United Negro College Fund, traveling the nation to raise scholarships and institutional support for historically Black colleges and universities. His success there propelled him to the National Urban League, where in 1971 he succeeded Whitney M. Young Jr. as president and chief executive. Over the next decade, Jordan broadened the Leagues mission from social services and job training to a more expansive agenda of economic opportunity, corporate engagement, and executive leadership development. He argued that civil rights in the 1970s and early 1980s required not only courtroom victories but seats at boardroom tables, and he built partnerships with business leaders to expand hiring, procurement, and housing opportunities for Black Americans. His pragmatic coalition-building brought critics and admirers alike, but it firmly placed the Urban League at the intersection of civil rights and corporate America.

Assassination Attempt and Recovery
On May 29, 1980, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jordan survived an assassination attempt that shocked the country. He was gravely wounded by a sniper shot. An avowed white supremacist, Joseph Paul Franklin, later claimed responsibility. Jordan recovered after months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, returning to the public stage with renewed determination. The incident underscored both the personal risks borne by civil rights leaders and the persistence of racial terror even after landmark legislative victories.

Washington Counsel and Corporate Leadership
In 1981 Jordan stepped down from the Urban League and moved into private practice and public policy counsel in Washington, joining the powerhouse law and lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he worked closely with Robert Strauss. He emerged as one of the capitals most influential counselors, navigating the nexus of law, policy, and business for clients across industries. In 2000 he became a senior managing director at the investment bank Lazard, while continuing as senior counsel at Akin Gump. Jordan also served on the boards of major corporations, including American Express, Xerox, J.C. Penney, and Dow Jones & Company, bringing his experience in governance, ethics, and inclusion to the highest levels of American commerce.

Advisor to National Leaders
Jordan was a trusted adviser to presidents and policymakers, most prominently Bill Clinton. A longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, he played a central role in the 1992 presidential transition, introducing the incoming administration to corporate leaders and helping recruit senior personnel. Throughout the 1990s he remained an informal counselor to the White House, offering political judgment and strategic advice while keeping his private-sector posts. His ability to move candidly among activists, CEOs, and elected officials made him a rare broker of interests who could translate across worlds that often spoke past each other.

Writing, Speaking, and Public Service
Jordan was a prolific public speaker who believed that persuasion was a civic duty. He delivered keynote addresses at universities, civic organizations, and business forums, often insisting that the American promise was incomplete without equal access to education, capital, and voting rights. His memoir, "Vernon Can Read!" co-written with Annette Gordon-Reed and published in 2001, recounts his journey from segregated Atlanta to national leadership. A later collection, "Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out" (2008), gathered speeches and essays that mapped his evolving view of rights and responsibilities in a changing economy. Among many honors he received, the NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal in recognition of his lifelong contributions.

Personal Life
Jordan balanced public prominence with a rooted private life. He first married Shirley Yarbrough, with whom he had a daughter, Vickee. After Shirleys death in 1985, he married Ann Dibble Jordan, a distinguished civic leader and philanthropist. Ann Jordan was a steadfast partner in his public commitments, and the couple became mainstays of Washingtons cultural and philanthropic circles. He maintained close friendships across the spectrum of American life, from journalists such as Charlayne Hunter-Gault to political figures and business colleagues who had come to know him through years of collaboration and counsel.

Legacy and Death
Vernon Jordan died on March 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 85. He left a legacy that cannot be reduced to a single title. He was a civil rights lawyer who opened doors at the University of Georgia; a strategist who helped register voters and turn victories in court into influence at the ballot box; the leader who modernized the National Urban League; a survivor whose recovery from a racist attack became a testament to resilience; a Washington counselor whose advice guided presidents; and a business executive who insisted that corporate America had obligations to equity and opportunity. The people around him tell the story as much as the positions he held: mentors like Donald L. Hollowell, legal colleagues like Constance Baker Motley, students like Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes whose courage he defended, partners like Robert Strauss in Washingtons corridors of power, and friends Bill and Hillary Clinton in the crucible of national politics. Through them, and through the institutions he strengthened, Jordan helped reshape the terms of citizenship and leadership in modern America.

Our collection contains 11 quotes who is written by Vernon, under the main topics: Justice - Leadership - Mother - Equality - Legacy & Remembrance.