Remembering Vernon Jordan, a Different Kind of Civil Rights Leader
Jordan left the Urban League and the civil rights movement the following year to join the politically well-connected law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he truthfully earned the unofficial title of “Washington insider” — and his friendship with President Bill Clinton also brought the unofficial title of “First Buddy.”
Here again, he defied the usual expectations. His passing brings to mind the dust-up raised after a photo of him chauffeuring the president in a golf cart during a weekend game wound up on the front page of The New York Times.
Some of my newsroom friends, Black and white, buzzed with mixed reactions to “the president’s new chauffeur.” As I wrote at the time, what the heck; Just imagine how much the zillionaires of this world would pay to be in that driver’s seat?
I was thinking of how Jordan probably got his first taste of the world of power and influence as a waiter at lawyers’ club dinners working in Atlanta for his mother, who, like mine, had a catering business.
He also worked one summer in college as a driver for a wealthy, politically connected banker, who was startled to discover he could read. His exclamation to his family became the title of his 2008 autobiography, co-authored with award-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed: “Vernon Can Read!”
Yes, he could. He also gave us a lot to read about.
His life illustrated the power that education, plus effort, can bring, once the doors of opportunity have opened up to those who prepare themselves to step inside.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
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