Vernon Jordan died at the age of 85. He was seen here in November 1992 while leading the transition team for then-elected President Bill Clinton. Jennifer K. Law / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
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Jennifer K. Law / AFP via Getty Images
Vernon Jordan died at the age of 85. He was seen here in November 1992 while leading the transition team for then-elected President Bill Clinton.
Jennifer K. Law / AFP via Getty Images
Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET
Vernon Jordan, the civil rights attorney who built a career as a realtor in politics and business, has died at the age of 85.
Jordan “died peacefully last night surrounded by loved ones,” his daughter Vickee Jordan said in a statement sent to NPR. “We appreciate the outpouring of love and affection.”
Jordan is from Atlanta and attended DePauw University before graduating from Howard University with a law degree. Shortly after graduating, he dedicated himself to ending discrimination against black Americans in the struggle for equality. He led President Bill Clinton’s transition team from 1992-93 and remained a friend and advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton for decades.
Jordan played an important role in desegregation in the south, particularly at the college level. In the early 1960s, he became Field Director in Georgia for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and helped Charlayne Hunter through a crowd of white protesters at the University of Georgia in 1961.
“As an icon of the world and a lifelong friend of the NAACP, his contribution to advancing our society toward justice is unparalleled,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, noting that his organization had honored Jordan for life as an activist.
“His exemplary life will shine as a guiding light for all who seek truth and justice for all people,” said Johnson.
In reflecting on the arc of civil rights in his life, Jordan once compared how Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa and saw Barack Obama proclaimed President-elect of the United States
Jordan said he saw these two important events alone in front of a television.
“I didn’t think I’d live to see that day,” he told NPR’s Michel Martin in the weeks following Obama’s 2008 victory.
During his long career, Jordan directed both the National Urban League and the United Negro College Fund. He also worked in voter education and was a legal advisor with the US Office of Economic Opportunity.
Jordan has received dozens of honorary degrees – including the University of Pennsylvania, where he delivered the graduation address to his daughter’s graduating class. However, that speech did not take place until after Vickee Jordan gave her approval.
As Jordan told NPR, his daughter initially told university administrators that she would rather have her father in the stands than on stage during her graduation.
Jordan recalled, “I wasn’t surprised when she told the president [Martin] Meyerson, ‘Why can’t my father just sit in the audience like other fathers?’ ”
But then there was a change of heart and the speech continued.
“I said, ‘Now listen, Vickee, what about all that ordinary papa stuff, I sit like an ordinary papa?’
“And she said, ‘Well, I’ve decided you’re no ordinary dad.”
In the business world, Vernon was sought to join company boards of directors and advisory boards. He was a partner emeritus at the law firm Akin Gump and a senior managing director at Lazard Frères & Co., a financial firm in New York.
“We lost a great man today,” said Kim Koopersmith, chairman of Akin Gump, calling Jordan “a wise and trustworthy mentor and friend who, in everything he did, inspired us to embrace the best possible version of ourselves.” be.”
“His generosity was limitless and his leadership was invulnerable and delivered with a purposefulness and moral clarity that can never be matched,” said Koopersmith. “Vernon was unique in many ways and his tremendous contributions – to our company, to our country, and to us as individuals – are deeply missed.”
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