According to his family, Vernon Jordan, a civil rights icon and adviser to former President Bill Clinton, passed away Monday.
He was 85.
His daughter, Vickee Jordan, said he “passed away peacefully last night by loved ones.”
“We appreciate all the outpouring of love and affection,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
Jordan, born August 15, 1935 in Atlanta, grew up in the segregated South and became an influential leader in the American civil rights movement, Washington politics, and Wall Street.
He studied at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and the Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC, and from 1971 to 1981 became president of the National Urban League.
According to the organization, he was the first to draft the report of the State of Black America in 1976 “after both President Gerald Ford’s State of the Nation address and the response of Senator Edmund Muskie completely ignored the crisis facing black Americans. . “
Under his leadership, the organization added another 17 chapters and its budget grew to more than $ 100 million. It also expanded its focus to include voter registration and conflict resolution between black people and law enforcement.
The high position landed him in May 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the crossroads of a racist. Jordan was shot with a shotgun outside his hotel after returning from dinner after a talk show.
Jordan underwent five surgeries and was visited by President Jimmy Carter during his three-month recovery in hospital.
Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews in a country from 1977 to 1980, later admitted to shooting Jordan. He was never prosecuted in the Jordan case, but was killed in 2013 for another manslaughter in Missouri.
President of the National Urban League, Marc Morial, remembered him as one of the “best transformative leaders” in civil rights, politics and business.
“The country has lost one of its greatest champions of racial and economic justice,” he said in a statement. “He was a transforming leader who brought the movement into a new era. He was a personal mentor and dear friend. His passing leaves a huge void that can never be filled.”
Morial further said that the organization would not be where it is today without Jordan.
Jordan was also the executive director of the United Negro College Fund in 1980 and 1981. In a tweet, the organization’s president, Michael Lomax, called Jordan’s death a “heartbreaking loss” and reflected on the last time the two saw each other.
“My last meeting with the Great Vernon Jordan in his DC office to get advice and counsel on a difficult issue facing UNCF,” he writes a picture of them together.
“He was always there for @UNCF, for #HBCUs and black college students. He liked to [sic] Benjamin Mays, Albert Dent and great HBCU presidents he knew. ‘
The civil rights leader was also influential in politics, becoming an important adviser to Clinton during his first presidential campaign and co-chair of Clinton’s transition team. He was the first black person to be assigned such a role.
His friendship with Clinton, which began in the 1970s, developed into a partnership and political alliance. He met Clinton as a young politician in Arkansas, and the two bonded over their southern roots and poor education.
Although Jordan held no official role in Clinton’s White House, he was very influential and had the labels as the ‘first friend’. He approached Colin Powell to become Secretary of State and encouraged Clinton to pass the 1993 NAFTA agreement. Jordan also got a job at Revlon for Monica Lewinsky, an intern in the White House whose relationship with the president caused a scandal.
Jordan’s actions briefly caught the attention of federal prosecutors investigating Clinton’s actions, but he was ultimately not mentioned in a final report issued by Special Prosecutor Ken Starr.
In 2000, Jordan joined the New York investment firm Lazard Freres & Co. joined as a senior management partner.
The following year he released an autobiography ‘Vernon Can Read !: A Memoir’. Also in 2001, Jordan was awarded the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor the NAACP awarded to a Black American for outstanding achievements.
He has earned more than 55 honorary degrees, including those from both of his alma mater, and has served on several boards.
Jordan’s first wife, Shirley Yarbrough Jordan, died in December 1985. He is survived by his daughter and his second wife, Ann Jordan.
Reuters contributed.