Vernon Jordan, civil rights activist, nationwide energy dealer who died in March, remembered in Atlanta memorial service

ExplorePHOTOS: Atlanta event honors Vernon Jordan legacy

“It’s emotional, but it’s also an opportunity to celebrate,” said Vickee, noting that St. Paul AME Church “has always been a home for us.”

The commemoration on Saturday was planned as a celebration of life and also as the inauguration of the Jordan Family Life Center in his honor in the church.

At Jordan’s public memorial service in Washington in March, President Bill Clinton said Jordan was “worthy of our love and admiration.” Jordan co-chaired Clinton’s transition effort, and Young said Jordan was Clinton’s “spiritual father.”

Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was born in Atlanta on August 15, 1935. Black Americans could hardly achieve worldly power and influence in the 1950s, but Young said Jordan’s parents, Mary Belle and Vernon Sr., drove him to greatness. Jordan worked for his mother’s catering company that served Atlanta’s white elites.

He later became a driver for former Atlanta Mayor and Bank President Robert F. Maddox – who was shocked to learn that his young six-foot driver was educated.

ExploreOriginally from Atlanta, Vernon Jordan remembered insight and devotion to freedom

In 1953 Jordan graduated from David T. Howard High School with honors. He later attended DePauw University in Indiana, where he was the only black student in his class, according to The HistoryMakers’ Oral History Collection. In 1960 he graduated from Howard University School of Law.

After leading boycotts as Secretary of State for the NAACP in Georgia, Jordan became executive director of the United Negro College Fund. He then led the growth of the National Urban League and for more than a decade became the face of Black America’s modern struggle for employment and justice.

At the memorial on Saturday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms called Jordan “a great, huge man” who “has always made our village proud to call him our own”. Suffrage activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said she cited his example as “leading the greatest voter registration effort in Georgian history.”

Abrams also said he kindly told her she was “crazy” to think she could become governor. However, she said he did it to urge her to serve Georgia’s people and the Lord rather than “my own ambition.”

A white racist in Indiana tried to murder Jordan in 1980. Young said Jordan didn’t hear the shot, but recalled “something hit him in the back and picked him up from the floor.”

Caption

Vernon Jordan: Civil rights activist, close advisor to Bill Clinton, dies at the age of 85

Photo credit: Associated Press

Photo credit: Associated Press

Jordan then moved into business and politics and became Legal Counsel at the law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld in DC

Young urged participants to continue Jordan’s work “to redeem the soul of America”.

“May the afterglow of his well-lived life inspire others to do greater work,” said Rev. Gregory V. Eason Sr., pastor of Flipper Temple AME Church.

Jordan is survived by his wife Ann; his daughter and three stepchildren. He also leaves behind his seven grandchildren, eight nieces and nephews, in-laws, cousins, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution authors Ernie Suggs and Shelia Poole, Associated Press, and The New York Times contributed to this article.

ExploreVernon Jordan, 85, moved up from Atlanta’s public housing to the White House