Source: Politics<\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014 Vernon Jordan, who rose from humble beginnings in the segregated South to become a champion of civil rights before reinventing himself as a Washington insider and corporate influencer, has died, according to a statement from his daughter. He was 85.<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s daughter, Vickee Jordan Adams, released the statement Tuesday to CBS News.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father passed away last night around 10p surrounded by loved ones his wife and daughter by his side,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After stints as field secretary for the Georgia NAACP and executive director of the United Negro College Fund, he became head of the National Urban League, becoming the face of Black America\u2019s modern struggle for jobs and justice for more than a decade. He was nearly killed by a racist\u2019s bullet in 1980 before transitioning to business and politics.<\/p>\n
His friendship with Bill Clinton took them both to the White House. Jordan was an unofficial Clinton aide, drawing him into controversy during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.<\/p>\n
After growing up in the Jim Crow South and living much of his life in a segregated America, Jordan took a strategic view of race issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view on all this business about race is never to get angry, no, but to get even,\u201d Jordan said in a July 2000 New York Times interview. \u201cYou don\u2019t take it out in anger; you take it out in achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan was the first lawyer to head the Urban League, which had traditionally been led by social workers. Under Jordan\u2019s leadership, the Urban League added 17 more chapters and its budget swelled to more than $100 million. The organization also broadened its focus to include voter registration drives and conflict resolution between Blacks and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
He resigned from the Urban League in 1982 to become a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld.<\/p>\n
Jordan was a key campaign adviser to Clinton during his first presidential campaign and co-chaired Clinton\u2019s transition team. He was the first Black to be assigned such a role.<\/p>\n
His friendship with Clinton, which began in the 1970s, evolved into a partnership and political alliance. He met Clinton as a young politician in Arkansas, and the two connected over their Southern roots and poor upbringings.<\/p>\n
Although Jordan held held no official role in the Clinton White House, he was highly influential and had such labels as the \u201cfirst friend.\u201d He approached Colin Powell about becoming Secretary of State and encouraged Clinton to pass the NAFTA agreement in 1993. Jordan also secured a job at Revlon for Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern whose sexual encounters with the president spawned a scandal.<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s actions briefly drew the attention of federal prosecutors investigating Clinton\u2019s actions, but he ultimately was not mentioned in a final report issued by special prosecutor Ken Starr.<\/p>\n
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr., was born in Atlanta on Aug. 15, 1935, the second of Vernon and Mary Belle Jordan\u2019s three sons. Until Jordan was 13, the family lived in public housing. But he was exposed to Atlanta\u2019s elite through his mother, who worked as a caterer for many of the city\u2019s affluent citizens.<\/p>\n
Jordan went to DePauw University in Indiana, where he was the only Black in his class and one of five at the college. Distinguishing himself through academics, oratory and athletics, he graduated in 1957 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and went on to attend Howard University School of Law in Washington. While there, he married his first wife, Shirley Yarbrough.<\/p>\n
The young couple moved to Atlanta after Jordan earned his law degree in 1960, and Jordan became a clerk for civil rights attorney Donald Hollowell, who successfully represented two Black students \u2014 Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter \u2014 attempting to integrate the University of Georgia. In an iconic photograph, Jordan, an imposing 6 feet, 4 inches, is seen holding at bay the white mob that tried to block Hunter from starting her first day of classes.<\/p>\n
In 1961, Jordan became Georgia field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. During his two years in the role, Jordan built new chapters, coordinated demonstrations and boycotted businesses that would not employ Blacks.<\/p>\n
Jordan moved to Arkansas in 1964 and went into private practice. He also became director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council. During his tenure, millions of new Blacks joined the voter rolls and hundreds of Blacks were elected in the South.<\/p>\n
Jordan considered running for Georgia\u2019s fifth congressional district seat in 1970, but was tapped that year to head the United Negro College Fund. Holding the position for just 12 months, Jordan used his fundraising skills to fill the organization\u2019s coffers with $10 million to help students at historically Black colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
In 1971, after the death of Whitney Young Jr., Jordan was named the fifth president of the National Urban League, which is dedicated to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that working with the Urban League, the NAACP, PUSH and SCLC is the highest form of service that you can perform for Black people,\u201d Jordan said in a December 1980 interview in Ebony Magazine. \u201cAnd if you serve Black people you serve the country as well. So if I do a good job here, the Black people are not the only beneficiary; so is the country. The country has a vested interest in Black people doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The high-profile position landed him in the crosshairs of a racist in May 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Jordan was shot with a hunter\u2019s rifle outside his hotel after returning from dinner following a speaking engagement.<\/p>\n
Jordan had five surgeries and was visited by President Jimmy Carter during his 3-month recovery in the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not afraid and I won\u2019t quit,\u201d Jordan told Ebony after the shooting.<\/p>\n
Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed white supremacist who targeted Blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980, later admitted to shooting Jordan. He was never prosecuted in Jordan\u2019s case, but was put to death in 2013 for another slaying in Missouri.<\/p>\n
Jordan left the organization in 1981, but said his departure was not related to the shooting.<\/p>\n
In 2000, Jordan joined the New York investment firm of Lazard Freres & Co. as a senior managing partner. The following year, he released an autobiography, \u201cVernon Can Read!: A Memoir.\u201d Also in 2001, Jordan was awarded the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor given to a Black American for outstanding achievement.<\/p>\n
He has received more than 55 honorary degrees, including ones from both of his alma maters and sat on several boards of directors.<\/p>\n