06.15_Brian White_Activist Vernon Jordan, Jr.

#OTD Lawyer and activist Vernon E. Jordan was appointed executive director of the National Urban League. Actor Brian White shines a spotlight on his legacy.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I I'm Actor Brian White. This day in Qui History.
June fifteenth, nineteen seventy one, lawyer and civil rights activist
Vernon E. Jordan Junior is appointed the National Urban League
executive director. Jordan attended DePaul the epau W University, where

(00:24):
he was the only African American in his class. He
went on to receive his juris doctorate from Howard University
School of Law in nineteen sixty. A year later, Jordan
helped to integrate the University of Georgia by suing the
university for its discriminatory practices. Jordan personally escorted Charlene Hunter,
the University of George's first African American female student, through

(00:47):
a hostile white crowd. When Jordan joined the ranks of
the National Urban League, he helped to spearhead the organization's growth.
He resigned from his post with the League after being
shot by a white supremacist in May of nineteen eight.
He would go on to join the Washington d C.
Firm as legal counsel and served on what would be
President Bill Clinton's transition team. Jordan then advised the President

(01:09):
throughout his two terms in the White House. A two
time author Jordan received the NAACP's prestigious Spingarn Medal in
two thousand and one.