Vernon Jordan: Make it Plain (2020) - full transcript
♪
GATES: Vernon Jordan is
the Rosa Parks of Wall Street.
LEE: The voice of reason
or conscience for presidents.
BUFFET: If I ask Vernon,
I'm gonna get
something that's meaningful.
CLINTON: I had to listen to
how handsome and brilliant and
good he was, you know,
it was revolting.
NARRATOR: "Vernon Jordan:
Make it Plain"
Coming up next.
NARRATOR: Funding for
"Vernon Jordan: Make it Plain"
was provided by Ford Foundation
Just Films.
And by the
Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
(birds chirping)
BERNARD: Good morning, sir.
JORDAN: They got you
up early this morning.
BERNARD: Yes, sir.
(laughs).
JORDAN: All right.
Call Powell's secretary and see
if we're gonna have to respond.
Yeah. All right.
I'll talk to you.
Bernard, how you been. Okay?
BERNARD: I'm fine,
thank you, sir.
JORDAN: This yesterday's paper?
It's all about the election.
BERNARD: Yes.
JORDAN: I'm tired
of reading about that.
(Bernard laughs).
JORDAN: My father was
a hard-working man.
He was a mail carrier.
And my father would
have been very content
had I finished high school,
married a nice girl,
got a job in the post office.
For him that would have
been very, a good thing.
And my mother's attitude,
"“That's not good
enough for this boy.
He's gonna do things,
and he's gonna go places."”
And I believed her.
MODERATOR: Our guest
today on "“Meet the Press"”
is Vernon E. Jordan, Junior,
President of the
National Urban League.
Mr. Jordan has been
active in civil rights work
including the NAACP
and the Voters Education
Project for twenty-one years.
He survived an assassin's
bullet in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
last year.
He has announced his resignation
from the Urban League
effective the end of this month
to go into private law practice.
But it's obvious today that
the civil rights movement is
meeting some kind of
resistance or in some way
perhaps has ended.
Is it the same as it used to be?
Is the momentum gone?
Has the civil rights
movement ended?
JORDAN: Well, I think that too
many people want to measure
the civil rights movement
by the drama of the 1960's.
Uh, what has happened is
that that drama has changed,
and that drama
brought about many,
many significant changes,
it, the Civil Rights Act of '64.
FAUNTROY: I see Vernon Jordan
a little differently than
traditional civil
rights leaders.
He understood that you
can work to help people
on the ground.
But that work is always
going to be operating under an
umbrella of public policy.
You can't help people
without changing the
public policies that
create the circumstances
in which they live.
JORDAN: We have no
full-employment policy.
We have no welfare
reform policy.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill,
"“Never have so many
expected so much and
received so little."”
(applause).
CLINTON: When I met
Hillary in 1971,
first thing she did was
tell me about Vernon Jordan.
I had to listen to how
handsome and brilliant
and good he was.
You know, it was revolting.
He wanted to make his
contribution be part of
the movement but
have a unique life.
The advisor to
presidents, not just me.
GATES: Vernon Jordan was
the first person to realize
that a devastatingly effective
form of black power would be
top-down integration
at the heart of
American capitalism:
Wall Street.
Vernon Jordan has done more
to integrate the corridors of
financial power than any
African American in history.
Vernon Jordan is the
Rosa Parks of Wall Street.
(theme music plays)
(fire crackles)
JORDAN: "Rows start chanting,
rocking to the same rhythm in
our old rocking chair."
Speech Maker has a
big responsibility.
"To the highest aspirations."
It has to be sufficiently
entertaining that
people will listen.
But then he has
to say something that
makes listening worthwhile...
"Back in the back of his mouth."
Sometimes I sit here trying
to figure out what to say,
and I look at my mom, and I say,
"“What do you
think about this?"”
TRUMP: Nearly 180,000 illegal
immigrants with criminal records
ordered deported from
our country are tonight
roaming free to
threaten peaceful citizens.
(audience booing).
CROWD: Build that wall,
Build that wall!
ANN: We're waiting
on you right now.
JORDAN: Sent you to
get me down the stairs.
ANN: Everyone sent me
to give you the message.
(laughs).
WOMAN: So do we have everybody?
Should LB ride
with us in the back?
Are you going to drive separate?
WOMAN 2: Can't you fit three
in the, you put three in front?
ANN: What?
WOMAN 2: Nanna, go.
ANN: Too many bosses.
(laughter).
(overlapping chatter).
JORDAN: I got the phrase,
"Make it Plain" in church.
He said, "“Make it plain,
Preacher.
Put it there where
we can get it."”
♪ CHOIR: Holy, holy, holy
♪ Lord, God, Almighty
♪ Oh thy works
shall praise Thy name ♪
♪ In earth and sky and sea ♪
JORDAN: Good morning,
Rankin Chapel.
CONGREGATION: Good morning.
JORDAN: During these times
it is tempting to believe that
our problems are
particular and that our
situation is unprecedented.
I have come to say
to you this morning,
"“We have been here before."”
(audience murmurs).
I am reminded of my earliest
exposure to American politics.
Growing up in
Atlanta, Georgia, in 1943,
there was a gubernatorial race.
And Governor Eugene Talmadge
comes on WSB radio,
and he says, "“Fellow Georgians,
I am running for re-election.
I have two planks in my
platform: niggers and roads.
I am against the first,
and for the second.
This is exactly what
President Trump is saying now.
(applause).
Except his two planks
are immigrants and jobs.
He's against the first, and
claims to be for the second.
So when the executive orders
bar people from our shores
based on what they look
like or how they worship,
it is hard not to hear the
echoes of Strom Thurmond on
the campaign trail in
1948 or George Wallace
in the schoolhouse
door in 1963 saying,
"“Segregation today,
tomorrow, forever."”
We have been here before.
(applause).
Indeed, because we
have been here before,
we know we will endure.
But our journey also
teaches us that endurance
is not enough.
Listen. We do not sing,
"“We shall endure."”
(audience murmur).
We sing,
"“We shall overcome."”
(applause).
JORDAN: A member of the
Fulton County Commission
made a speech recently
and was quoted in the
Atlanta Constitution as
saying that we have to have
annexation so as to prevent
the center city from
being governed by, quote,
"“the uneducated
and the unfit."”
Now, if that is
the basis for annexation,
I'm opposed to it.
Because the uneducated
and the unfit that
he's talkin' about is me,
is Maynard, is Leroy, or others
of us in the black community
who not only are
educated but are well educated
and certainly are well
fit to do anything in this
community that any white
man can do in this community.
Thank you.
(applause).
JORDAN: Whenever
I come to Atlanta,
I come by and say
"“hello" ” to my mother.
And now I get to say "“hello" ”
to my mother and my brother.
I am proud of having grown
up in Atlanta, Georgia.
I grew up in the first
public housing project
for black people in America.
My father, very committed
to going to work,
gettin' there on time,
and then workin'
later that night
as a bartender in my
mother's catering business.
Work was a big value
in the Jordan family.
I can't remember, after
I was twelve years old,
not having a job somewhere.
I was a head dishwasher
when I was fifteen years old
at Emory University,
because I was the only
one working in the dish room
who could read.
You only came in contact with
white people when you got on
the bus and they sat up
front and you sat in the back.
I remember catching a streetcar.
And my mother would say,
"“Just because you
have to sit back here,
and they have to sit up there,
does not mean that
they are better than you.
You are as good as anybody
on this streetcar."”
This whole experience, um,
convinced me that,
if I got educated,
I could do something about it.
I'd like a dollar for
the times that I've walked
through this campus.
When I went to a piano lesson,
I came right through here.
When I went to the
Ashby Street Theatre,
I walked right through here.
Because I lived
straight that way.
DIRECTOR:
This is your neighborhood.
JORDAN: Yeah.
And one time Benjamin Mays
is leaving his house,
walking through the campus,
and I'm twenty feet behind him.
And he's walking like this.
So I walked like that.
It's the absolute truth.
All of the presidents in
the Atlanta University center
were people to
whom I looked up as a kid:
President Mays and Morehouse,
President Rufus Clement
at Atlanta University,
President Brawley
at Clark College.
The proximity had a big
influence on me and what I
wanted to be.
Every Sunday morning I
looked forward to walking to
St. Paul AME Church with
my father and my brothers.
Whenever I am home in
Atlanta on a Sunday,
I come to St. Paul.
'‘Cause this is home.
Now, right back here is a
pew named for my mother.
When I went to Europe for
the first time and I was, uh,
I forget where I was, but
I bought a fan, you know,
and gave it to her.
And so she would come
and sit on her pew and,
and the other sister would say,
"“Sister, where'd
you get that fan?"”
She says, "Vernon
brought it from Europe."”
(laughs).
She loved it.
She was an unlearned,
unlettered black
women from the South,
with a Ph.D. in life.
I started elementary
school at Walker Street School
in the first grade.
After the first month
my mother was president
of the PTA.
She then became
president of the State PTA
for colored children.
JORDAN: I could
have gone to Howard,
I could have gone to Morehouse.
But I had been to
DePauw right after I
graduated high school.
I knew that I was going to be
the only black in my class.
I wanted to do
something different.
I wanted to be
in another challenging,
boring almost, setting.
My mother wrote me a note.
"“Dear Man"”,
she called me, "“Man."”
And she called me "“Man"”
because young white men
would call my father "“boy."”
And she wanted me to
know that I was a man.
She said, "“Dear Man, we want
you to go to college wherever
you want to go to college.
But it may be a better thing
for you to go to Howard.
You'd be with your own people,
and you might be more
suited academically."”
So I come home, I read my note.
I say, "“Mama,
I'm goin' to DePauw."”
She said, "“All right.
Then we'll take you."”
PHOTOGRAPHER: Beautiful.
(overlapping chatter).
GRADUATE: Yeah, I wanna try.
Could I get a picture
with you at some point,
Mr., Mr. Jordan?
OFFICIAL: Step right in there.
(inaudible).
GRADUATE: Yes, yes, please.
Thank you very much.
(overlapping chatter)
JORDAN: I love
this place, DePauw.
While I learned a lot here,
I also taught a lot,
just by the very
fact of my presence.
That's in part because I
was the only black student
in my class, one of
only five enrolled at DePauw
at the time.
My roommates were
two white Midwesterners.
They were seniors and best
friends and planned to room
together their senior year.
But when they showed
up at 106 Longden Hall,
I was already there for
freshman orientation week.
When they walked into that
room and saw me sitting there,
the look on their
faces said it all,
"“What have we gotten
ourselves into now?"”
They were not
hostile or impolite.
We coexisted for three weeks.
Then one night I came
in from the library,
and they were in the room
in deep conversation.
I spoke to them, and one said,
"“We've been talking about you."”
And I said then,
"“What have you concluded?"”
(laughter).
And they said almost in unison,
"“We have concluded that you
are no different than we are.
You go to sleep at your desk.
You snore."
(laughter).
"“You sing in the shower.
You get mail and you get
cookies and cakes from home.
You play basketball, and
you drink beer and whisky."”
(laughter).
For three years I was the
head waiter at Longden Hall.
And when Richard Nixon
came in 1956,
I was given the honor of
serving the head table.
That photograph of me
with the pitcher in my hand
just over Richard Nixon
was a photograph
that, years later,
President Nixon invited
me to the Oval Office.
And my gift to him was to
show him that photograph,
which he loved.
And he loved it because he said,
"“Vernon, I was a
waiter in college, too."”
He signed the
picture, and I said,
"“Mr. President, what you
need to understand about this
photograph is that it was
taken when both of us were on
our way up."”
JORDAN: I went to law school
out of some sense of mission.
I went to the Howard
Law School in particular
because of its national
reputation in civil rights,
uh, because of its, uh,
Professor Jim Nabrit
initiated the person who
is now president
of the University...
MAN: Yeah...
JORDAN: Initiated the first
schools in civil rights and
who, uh, taught me
constitutional law which is
one of the great
privileges of my life.
I get to Howard.
I'm a freshman.
And there's a lecture
by Thurgood Marshall.
And I, I cannot tell you
what it felt like to walk
into the moot courtroom and
hear Thurgood Marshall talk.
I knew that I was
in the right place.
FAUNTROY:
Howard University School of Law,
it was a place where the most
successful litigation strategy
in American legal
history was put together.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund with
Thurgood Marshall had come
through and begun to
have a series of victories
that led up to Brown.
In the immediate
post-Brown period,
Vernon Jordan is
going to law school,
learning how to take these
victories that were more than
just case studies, but
actually a road map for future
victories in other places.
JORDAN: All of their
dry runs were in the
Howard University
moot courtroom.
As students we would,
during the breaks,
stand four feet away so we
could hear what they were
talkin' about as they
assessed the arguments.
And my ultimate experience
as a young lawyer,
Wiley Branton,
who was the lawyer for
the Little Rock Nine,
moved to my admission to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
And when I took my hand
down after being sworn in,
I looked directly at
Thurgood Marshall,
and Thurgood Marshall,
from the bench
of the Supreme Court,
winked his eye at me.
My mother said, "“That was
the laying on of hands."”
I came home out of
some sense of mission,
feeling that, uh,
I'd come back south,
I could do something
about the problem.
I began my
law career working for
Donald L. Hollowell,
who was then the prominent
civil rights lawyer in Atlanta,
for $35 a week.
And I didn't go to
the office my first day.
I went straight to the
Atlanta Municipal Court to get
students from the Atlanta
Prison Center out of jail.
HUNTER-GAULT: Hollowell went
where angels feared to tread.
You know, you
look back over it now.
But I mean, you're going
into a place where people
have been hung by
the Ku Klux Klan,
and their houses
have been burned.
It was dangerous.
HOLLOWELL: Uh,
you have asked me,
what other plans do we
have in connection with Reverend
Martin Luther King's release.
Of course, this would depend
upon whether or not the court
granted our motion to vacate.
JORDAN: The first case
that I was involved in with
Don Hollowell was eight
weeks after law school.
I was with Nathaniel Johnson
the night before he went to
the electric chair, because
there were no black lawyers in
Augusta, Georgia, in 1959.
GATES: When was
the first time I ever
saw Vernon Jordan?
I saw Vernon Jordan on a
black and white TV set
when I was,
eleven years old.
There was a tall, handsome
black man walking next to a
young black coed.
He was escorting her through
this, a wall of hostility.
HUNTER-GAULT: I didn't get
involved in civil rights until
my senior year in high school.
They came to our school
and asked our principal that,
did they have any top
students who could apply
to the local white college.
Hamilton Holmes was
the first in our class.
He wanted to be a doctor.
I looked at the curriculum.
I wanted to be a journalist.
And that was the
beginning of our journey,
not necessarily to be pioneers,
but to realize our dreams.
We had won, and we were
gonna claim our victory.
It was my mother, Vernon
and me, and, of course,
we were surrounded by all of
the reporters and students
yelling ugly racial epithets.
Vernon was very serious
and very determined.
So I didn't pay much attention
to him when we first met.
He was focused.
He was focused on his mission.
FAUNTROY: He understood that
there were television cameras
that were there recording.
And what we know,
broadcasting images
around the country on
the nightly news
tells a story that is
difficult to ignore.
I'm here, I have agency,
I have humanity,
and I have dignity.
And you all are going to
have to deal with that,
because I'm not going anywhere.
HUNTER-GAULT: We were focused.
I'm here to do a job,
and I'm gonna get this job done.
All of the rest of that
just faded away, to go forth,
go forward, and
get the job done.
JORDAN: In 1961 the NAACP
offered me a job as the
Georgia field director.
I was organizing, and
I was rehabilitating branches
that had gone down.
My first year my
membership results were the
best in the South.
I had the same job
in Georgia that Medgar
had in Mississippi.
But he was older than me,
and he had been doing the
job much longer.
Medgar and I became
very good friends.
MAN: Why do you feel
that it is important for
Negroes to vote?
EVERS: For example,
here in Jackson,
there is not one
single Negro policeman.
Uh, there are some 60,000
Negroes who live in the,
in Jackson, Mississippi,
with no, uh, Negroes
represented on the police force.
JORDAN: Very charismatic
and totally unafraid.
EVERS: I have had a number
of threatening calls,
people calling me, saying
that they were gonna kill me,
uh, saying that they were
gonna blow my home up,
and, uh, saying
that I only had a few
hours to live.
JORDAN: That spring
I called him up, and I said,
"“Medgar, I'm leaving.
I'm gonna work for the
Southern Regional Council."”
He said, "“Vernon,
that's what you should do.
But I can't leave."”
And then he was assassinated.
REPORTER: NAACP official
Medgar Evers was shot and
killed by a sniper.
Evers, a 37-year-old
father of three and a veteran,
was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery.
JORDAN: Medgar knew
what was in store,
and left us too early.
(disco music plays)
In 1970 I was offered the job
as executive director of the
United Negro College Fund,
which meant I had to leave
Atlanta and move to New York.
Achievement, success, record,
making a real difference
in the life of this nation,
is a story of
colleges within the
United Negro College Fund.
When I got to New York,
my most enthusiastic and
committed mentor
was Whitney M. Young.
Whitney has never
gotten his just due.
He revitalized the Urban League.
YOUNG: My only plea is that,
if we must polarize
in this country,
then let us no longer
polarize on the basis of
race or religion
or economic status.
But let us polarize on the
basis of decent people versus
indecent people,
between people...
JORDAN: The black
power structure in New York
didn't like it that Whitney
came from Atlanta to take
over the Urban League,
and they were not consulted.
And then this kid comes from
Atlanta to take over the
College Fund and raise
more money than had
ever been raised.
MAN: The United Negro College
Fund has helped black students
help get an education.
But today there just isn't
enough money, and tomorrow...
PROFESSOR: We're sorry, but
this course has been canceled.
MAN: Please don't
let this happen.
A mind is a terrible
thing to waste.
JORDAN: A year after I
got to New York to run
the College Fund,
Whitney Young died.
And I was asked to
be his successor.
No man can enter lightly
upon the task of carrying the
mission to which Whitney Young
brought such unique wisdom,
effectiveness, and grace.
I accept, not because of the
honor of succeeding a great man,
but out of a deep sense
of duty and responsibility to
use whatever talents and
abilities I have to help black
people in America achieve
their rightful and just place
in this society.
My approach will be my approach.
And, uh, whatever, uh,
however that may be
interpreted in terms of
whether it's moderate or,
or radical or conservative,
that's not for me to judge.
It is for the
Urban League board,
the Urban League constituency,
and black people and white
people generally to, to,
to, to judge what kind of
leadership that will be.
FAUNTROY: The
National Urban League is a
civil rights organization.
And over time it added to
its advocacy to be involved
in lobbying on public
policy changes.
JORDAN: I was the first
non-social worker who headed
up the Urban League.
I thought like I was trained,
like a lawyer.
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: No more
brothers in jail. ♪♪
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: Revolution has come.
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: Revolution has come. ♪
JORDAN: When I arrived
at the Urban League,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
had been dead for three years.
The NAACP had lost
some of its clout,
taking a back seat to
the strident tone of the
black power movement.
♪ GROUP: Black is beautiful! ♪♪
JORDAN: There was the notion
that there had to be a leader of
the black community.
What single individual would
step up and take the mantle of
Martin Luther King, Jr.?
This was very much in
the mind set of the times.
BROWN: Can black people
survive culturally and
physically in America?
Can we ever be a part of the
existing white institutions?
Or should we be
developing our own?
Can we as a people develop
solutions to our dilemma fast
enough to counteract the
present rate of growth of the
oppressive factors built
into this society by
institutional white racism?
As black people,
we must deal with the issues.
Is it too late?
["“A Black Journal Special" ”
theme music plays].
BROWN:
Tonight on "Black Journal",
Reverend Ralph Abernathy,
Imamu Amiri Baraka,
Reverend Albert Clay,
Mr. Roy Innis,
Mr. Vernon Jordan.
CLAY: Most of the panel
is integrationists which
is outmoded and
obsolete and will tend
to destroy black people.
We have got to,
black people have got
to drive integrationists,
integration organizations,
the black churches and
integrationists to say,
we have got to drive them
out of the black community.
BROWN: All right.
CLAY: We can't put together
a program that's dependent on
dealing with black integration.
BROWN: May we...
CLAY: They are the enemy.
BROWN: All right, Mr. Jordan was
trying to make a point.
And then Mr. Gregory.
JORDAN: I think that
Reverend Clay don't
understand that the,
that those of us who do
take a position on an open
pluralistic society,
that we're not going out
of the black community.
We're not gonna be run out.
And that we're there just
like the tree planted by
the rivers of water.
BROWN: I only have
one more response.
INNIS: Whether, you know,
Mr. Jordan and the other
assimilationists,
integrationists,
would be willing to refrain
from speaking exclusively for
the black community.
To recognize there are two
goals and agree for us to
function and possibly have
a peaceful coexistence to
reinforce each other's goals.
The problem is the
integrationists in conspiracy
to silence the true aspiration
and goal of most black people
which is that of
self-determination.
BROWN: Is there a common
ground then that anyone can
agree upon for the
advancement of all blacks?
CLAY: Yeah.
To get some power.
Uh, either we escape from
powerlessness and get power to
control our own destiny,
or we end up the
victims of genocide.
JORDAN: I think that that
would be a consensus theme if
that's possible, that, uh,
a goal of political and
economic empowerment on
the part of black
people is, is a, is a
desirable goal, and
hopefully an achievable one.
I think that the
difference comes...
MAN: How you get there...
JORDAN: How it relates to,
as it relates to
how we get there
and the means by which
it ought to be achieved.
Black people have to say...
FAUNTROY: Whitney Young
and Vernon Jordan were very
different people.
Vernon Jordan took the baton
and moved the Urban League
into new spaces in terms of
lobbying and in particular
interacting with
corporate America,
and sitting on corporate boards.
GATES: Do you know how
hard it was for him to be the
first Negro to be
seated at those boards,
surrounded by people primarily
with Ivy League educations,
who didn't grow up
knowing any black people?
CLINTON: He wanted to know
how America worked and
how people that he thought
were otherwise decent people
could be supporting
politics and policies that
he deeply disagreed with,
and whether there were
some way to bridge the divide.
And he always tried to
find some way to do that.
BUFFETT: He has an
almost unique position,
because people talk to
him because he's smart,
but they talk to him even
more because he's wise.
If I ask Vernon for a
piece of advice, uh,
I'm going to get something
that's meaningful.
LEE: Vernon is a true
role model for all of us.
I think, if you are lucky enough
to have Vernon on your board,
he does talk to you about,
how do you promote young
executives of color.
And he's also, uh, been
the voice of reason or
conscience for presidents.
JORDAN: Presidential wall.
And every president since
Lyndon Johnson is here.
Here I am with Johnson.
President Nixon right after I
succeeded Whitney Young as the
head of the Urban League.
Well, we got along all right.
I said to him, "“You say
something I don't like,
I will tell you, publicly."”
And that was our deal.
Gerald Ford,
President Reagan, Bill Clinton.
And here I am with my
fellow Georgian, Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter of Georgia came
to Urban League meetings
proudly wearing our
equality pin in his lapel.
In the short time he
has been President,
the sad fact is that the list
of what the administration has
not done far exceeds its
list of accomplishments.
(applause).
Black people didn't
vote for Nixon,
and black people
didn't vote for Ford.
(applause).
They voted, they
voted for Jimmy Carter,
and it is not enough
for President Carter to be
just a little bit better
than his predecessors.
(applause).
Sometime in, uh, 1977,
when I keynoted
the Urban League,
and he said to me,
"“You could have told me
that in, in the Oval."”
And I said, "“If you think that,
you don't understand
your job or mine."”
He understood, I think,
ultimately my role as an
advocate for black people.
Black people and the whole
process of desegregation and
integration are always
the ones that have to
give up something.
And, uh, I think that
black people generally
across this country,
especially in the urban cities,
are a little weary of
having to give up for the,
for the comforts
of, of the majority.
The true answer,
it seems to me...
ADAMS: I went with him on
several speaking engagements.
In each of those
cities he made very
strong arguments
about economic equality.
JORDAN: The lesson
here, my friends,
is that members of the white
business power structure
are bad politicians.
They fail to understand
that blacks will no
longer be junior partners
in the old alliance.
Not only...
ADAMS: And he was strong.
His voice was strong,
and he was powerful,
and he was delivering.
I mean, he was bringin' it.
JORDAN: What you
have to understand, Mr. Hyde,
is, you see, I do
not trust white people in
the South with my rights.
Masses of black people...
ADAMS: But I said to him,
I sad, "“Dad, you know,
don't you get worried
saying stuff like this to
all these white people?"”
He said,
"“No. You gotta say it.
You gotta,
you gotta tell it."”
And I said, "“Wow."”
I mean, it's just, you know,
"“Don't you worry
somebody's gonna try
to hurt you?"”
Two weeks later...
JORDAN: I did not know
what had happened.
I did not know why it happened.
When I was on the ground
bleeding, I was saying,
"“I have to be in
Houston tomorrow."”
I did not know that
I was not going to
Houston until I woke up
after the operation.
ADAMS: We got to the hospital.
He just had so many, uh,
tubes and wires all around him.
But they let us go up and,
you know, touch his hand.
And I stroked his head
and told him I was there.
JORDAN: I did not know
what my future was.
And when I was in the
hospital for 98 days,
I was only thinking
about one thing,
"“What do I have to
do to get out of here?"”
CLINTON: In 1980 I lost
in the Reagan landslide.
It was a tough year for
me and, uh, Hillary,
and a much tougher
year for Vernon.
That's when he was shot.
Sometime in early 1981 he
called Hillary, and he said,
"“You got any
grits down there?"”
(laughs).
And she said,
"“What do you mean?
Did you mean New York
or Washington?"”
She's, "“No. In Arkansas.
You got any grits?"”
And he says,
"“I, I need some."”
She said, "“Well,
when do you want '‘em?"”
He said, "“How's
tomorrow mornin'?"”
He flew all the way to Arkansas,
because I was the youngest
ex-governor in decades in
American history.
And he didn't want
me to give up.
It was like the,
"“Life for me ain't
been no crystal stairs,"”
like the old
Langston Hughes poem.
You know, it was the, he said,
"“It's just a
splinter on the stair."”
He said, "“You know, you gotta
keep climbing the stairs."”
JORDAN: We're here at Akin
Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld
where I have been a
senior partner, uh, since, um,
since January of 1982.
CHENAULT: The way I
think about it is,
Vernon was one of the first
crossover artists at that time,
someone moving from a
civil rights organization to a
corporate law firm.
That was a first.
MONROE: A lot of people
thought your decision to leave
the Urban League now was
deserting an important cause
just when it needed your type
of leadership, uh, the most.
What do you say to those
who think you're abandoning a
vital cause when you've
served all your adult life
in order to go make money?
JORDAN: Well, uh, go and
make money, that's, uh,
that's your own view of it.
Uh, I believe that ten
years is long enough in this
particular capacity.
Uh, I do not believe
that there is ever a
good time to leave.
Uh, nor do I believe that,
uh, any one individual is
absolutely indispensable
to progress.
So why do I, I do not
view my resignation, uh,
as abandonment.
I view it as a refreshing
interlude for an institution,
uh, to get new leadership,
fresh leadership.
I also view it as a
professional and personal
opportunity for myself
to pursue a course of,
of work that is exciting,
that is
intellectually challenging,
and that will be
rewarding to me.
GATES: We are all looking
this way for the revolution.
And Vernon is over here
in corporate America,
making the revolution.
CHENAULT: I believe his
movement to a corporate law
firm brought the civil rights
movement to the next level.
PIERCE: One of the factors
that I took into account when
I interviewed, um, with firms
was whether there was an
African American in the
firm that was of note.
Because I thought, just
like many people before me,
that I would stand on the
shoulders of that other
already successful individual.
Um, and this firm had Vernon.
If you think about what the
movement was about, equality,
equal opportunity, I look
at Vernon, and I think,
"“Boy, that's, that's
what we want to achieve."”
JORDAN: That have
been coming since 1982,
and I'm almost 83 years old.
I like it.
(laughs).
It's very simple.
The thought of retirement
does not excite me.
MAN: Yeah I wish he'd slow down
a little bit, actually.
(laughs).
I think his schedule and
his desire to keep at it
every day fuels him.
JORDAN: Diplomatic row here.
Now this street right
here to the left,
at the end of that street on
the right hand side is where
the Clinton's have a house.
Now this house right here,
that's where
Kelly Ann Conway lives.
WOMAN: Did she
come say "Hi" to you?
JORDAN: I welcomed her
to the neighborhood and said
"“hello" ” and all that.
(fire crackles)
Sometimes when I'm sittin'
down here at the fire I think,
"“This is a long way
from University Homes."
The housing project
where I grew up.
Long way.
JACOBS: Vernon joined
Lazard in January of 2000.
It was really fortunate,
because when Vernon arrived
the office that he took
was literally next to mine.
And I had the great
fortune of just being close
to him whenever he
was here which was
four days a week.
He kind of adopted me.
And he became a real
friend obviously, but also,
very importantly, a
mentor to me over that whole
period of time.
JORDAN: There he is.
(overlapping chatter).
MAN: Thank you.
JORDAN: This is what
it's all about here.
LEWIS: My assistant will say,
"“Vernon is
coming up to see you."”
Well, I know that will
mean fifteen minutes from now,
because Vernon will stop and
engage, uh, with everybody.
Vernon knows something about
almost everybody that he
passes in the halls.
And he has a word or
two to say to everybody.
MAN: The Washington Post
has that too.
KOOPERSMITH: I would not be
sitting in the chair as chair
of this law firm if it
was not for Vernon Jordan.
I mean, I have, uh, zero
doubt that his mentorship
is how I got here.
In 1981 there were
23,000 of us at the
Philadelphia Civic Center,
and he was my
commencement speaker when I
graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania.
And fast-forward
fifteen years later,
I joined Akin Gump and
attended my first partner
retreat, and saw
him across the room,
and walked straight
across and said,
"“Mr. Jordan, you will not
remember me from the 20,000,
23,000 people at the
Philadelphia Civic Center.
But I remember
every word you said."”
And Vernon being Vernon, said,
"“Young lady,
I don't know who you are.
I don't know what your name is.
But you are my new best friend "”"
And it was true.
He shepherded me
through that meeting,
introduced me to everyone
of importance at the firm,
and here we are.
CHENAULT: I very proudly hold
myself out as a mentee of
Vernon Jordan.
In 1984 Vernon was on
the board of directors
at American Express,
and evidently my name
came up at the board meeting
as someone who
had very high potential.
And so Vernon
called me and said,
"“Ken, this is Vernon Jordan."”
And he asked me if
I would come to breakfast.
And the breakfast,
it lasted for five hours.
And he talked to me
about my aspirations,
but he also told me his story.
And it was wonderful and
certainly my journey in the
corporate world I
encountered prejudice,
and I encountered skepticism
and whether I belonged.
But I think the mentality
that I had was very much a
mentality that I had
a right to be there.
And I was going to push
forward and deal with
obstacles because of leaders
like Vernon Jordan who had
demonstrated throughout
their life that obstacles were
to be overcome.
JORDAN: The feeling is,
I had a lot of help.
And so I'm here to
help others if I can.
CLINTON: I never saw
him turn down an opportunity
to try to help a
young person who needed help,
including to give good advice.
So there are,
quite apart from
all these jobs he's held and
all these board
positions he's held and all
these things he's done,
and the fact that he
was very close to me,
so close that he turned
down my plea to him
to become attorney general.
I said, "“Vern, you
can become the first
black attorney general."”
He said, "“Yeah." ” He said,
"“And I know exactly what
the job is."” And he said,
"“What else, what's gonna
happen when you need somebody
to just talk to you?"”
And he said, "“I, I don't
want to be in the government.
I want to be your friend."”
JORDAN: When I testified
in the impeachment trial
of Bill Clinton,
my testimony was not
put in the record,
because the Republicans
kept it out.
And here is my testimony
that I have framed.
"“What was taught to be by my
mother is that the only thing
that I own totally and
completely is my integrity.
And my integrity has
been on trial here.
The President is my friend.
He was before this happened.
He is now, and he will
be when this is over."”
CLINTON: He's a fast friend.
He doesn't quit
on people that he loves,
even if they fail.
MAN: Do I put the
syrup in the fridge?
WOMAN: Huh, just put it there.
MAN: Okay.
(phone ringing)
JORDAN: Hello...
What do you got to tell me?
Do you have a
telephone number for
the Paris ambassador?
Yeah, well, I'll have
Doug handle that.
WOMAN: Uh, what do you have?
MAN: Some railroads, money.
How's that?
WOMAN: I'll get
you a Monopoly...
JORDAN: I've been
here twenty years.
I don't own it.
I rent it.
I think you only own one house.
And if the pipes burst in
January, it's not my problem.
(laughs).
That's right.
It's not my problem.
I know that I have been
blessed with extraordinary
mentors in my career.
Hey, how are you?
I am also very
certain that there is
no substitute for a
commitment to excellence,
hard work, and sacrifice.
I'm pretty sure
that that is, in part,
the explanation for
whatever I may have achieved.
But I didn't get here by myself.
♪
NARRATOR: If you
missed a moment,
you can watch this
film online and learn more
And join the
conversation online with
#VernonJordanPBS.
NARRATOR: Funding for
"Vernon Jordan: Make it Plain"
was provided by Ford Foundation
Just Films.
And by the
Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
NARRATOR: You're watching PBS.
GATES: Vernon Jordan is
the Rosa Parks of Wall Street.
LEE: The voice of reason
or conscience for presidents.
BUFFET: If I ask Vernon,
I'm gonna get
something that's meaningful.
CLINTON: I had to listen to
how handsome and brilliant and
good he was, you know,
it was revolting.
NARRATOR: "Vernon Jordan:
Make it Plain"
Coming up next.
NARRATOR: Funding for
"Vernon Jordan: Make it Plain"
was provided by Ford Foundation
Just Films.
And by the
Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
(birds chirping)
BERNARD: Good morning, sir.
JORDAN: They got you
up early this morning.
BERNARD: Yes, sir.
(laughs).
JORDAN: All right.
Call Powell's secretary and see
if we're gonna have to respond.
Yeah. All right.
I'll talk to you.
Bernard, how you been. Okay?
BERNARD: I'm fine,
thank you, sir.
JORDAN: This yesterday's paper?
It's all about the election.
BERNARD: Yes.
JORDAN: I'm tired
of reading about that.
(Bernard laughs).
JORDAN: My father was
a hard-working man.
He was a mail carrier.
And my father would
have been very content
had I finished high school,
married a nice girl,
got a job in the post office.
For him that would have
been very, a good thing.
And my mother's attitude,
"“That's not good
enough for this boy.
He's gonna do things,
and he's gonna go places."”
And I believed her.
MODERATOR: Our guest
today on "“Meet the Press"”
is Vernon E. Jordan, Junior,
President of the
National Urban League.
Mr. Jordan has been
active in civil rights work
including the NAACP
and the Voters Education
Project for twenty-one years.
He survived an assassin's
bullet in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
last year.
He has announced his resignation
from the Urban League
effective the end of this month
to go into private law practice.
But it's obvious today that
the civil rights movement is
meeting some kind of
resistance or in some way
perhaps has ended.
Is it the same as it used to be?
Is the momentum gone?
Has the civil rights
movement ended?
JORDAN: Well, I think that too
many people want to measure
the civil rights movement
by the drama of the 1960's.
Uh, what has happened is
that that drama has changed,
and that drama
brought about many,
many significant changes,
it, the Civil Rights Act of '64.
FAUNTROY: I see Vernon Jordan
a little differently than
traditional civil
rights leaders.
He understood that you
can work to help people
on the ground.
But that work is always
going to be operating under an
umbrella of public policy.
You can't help people
without changing the
public policies that
create the circumstances
in which they live.
JORDAN: We have no
full-employment policy.
We have no welfare
reform policy.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill,
"“Never have so many
expected so much and
received so little."”
(applause).
CLINTON: When I met
Hillary in 1971,
first thing she did was
tell me about Vernon Jordan.
I had to listen to how
handsome and brilliant
and good he was.
You know, it was revolting.
He wanted to make his
contribution be part of
the movement but
have a unique life.
The advisor to
presidents, not just me.
GATES: Vernon Jordan was
the first person to realize
that a devastatingly effective
form of black power would be
top-down integration
at the heart of
American capitalism:
Wall Street.
Vernon Jordan has done more
to integrate the corridors of
financial power than any
African American in history.
Vernon Jordan is the
Rosa Parks of Wall Street.
(theme music plays)
(fire crackles)
JORDAN: "Rows start chanting,
rocking to the same rhythm in
our old rocking chair."
Speech Maker has a
big responsibility.
"To the highest aspirations."
It has to be sufficiently
entertaining that
people will listen.
But then he has
to say something that
makes listening worthwhile...
"Back in the back of his mouth."
Sometimes I sit here trying
to figure out what to say,
and I look at my mom, and I say,
"“What do you
think about this?"”
TRUMP: Nearly 180,000 illegal
immigrants with criminal records
ordered deported from
our country are tonight
roaming free to
threaten peaceful citizens.
(audience booing).
CROWD: Build that wall,
Build that wall!
ANN: We're waiting
on you right now.
JORDAN: Sent you to
get me down the stairs.
ANN: Everyone sent me
to give you the message.
(laughs).
WOMAN: So do we have everybody?
Should LB ride
with us in the back?
Are you going to drive separate?
WOMAN 2: Can't you fit three
in the, you put three in front?
ANN: What?
WOMAN 2: Nanna, go.
ANN: Too many bosses.
(laughter).
(overlapping chatter).
JORDAN: I got the phrase,
"Make it Plain" in church.
He said, "“Make it plain,
Preacher.
Put it there where
we can get it."”
♪ CHOIR: Holy, holy, holy
♪ Lord, God, Almighty
♪ Oh thy works
shall praise Thy name ♪
♪ In earth and sky and sea ♪
JORDAN: Good morning,
Rankin Chapel.
CONGREGATION: Good morning.
JORDAN: During these times
it is tempting to believe that
our problems are
particular and that our
situation is unprecedented.
I have come to say
to you this morning,
"“We have been here before."”
(audience murmurs).
I am reminded of my earliest
exposure to American politics.
Growing up in
Atlanta, Georgia, in 1943,
there was a gubernatorial race.
And Governor Eugene Talmadge
comes on WSB radio,
and he says, "“Fellow Georgians,
I am running for re-election.
I have two planks in my
platform: niggers and roads.
I am against the first,
and for the second.
This is exactly what
President Trump is saying now.
(applause).
Except his two planks
are immigrants and jobs.
He's against the first, and
claims to be for the second.
So when the executive orders
bar people from our shores
based on what they look
like or how they worship,
it is hard not to hear the
echoes of Strom Thurmond on
the campaign trail in
1948 or George Wallace
in the schoolhouse
door in 1963 saying,
"“Segregation today,
tomorrow, forever."”
We have been here before.
(applause).
Indeed, because we
have been here before,
we know we will endure.
But our journey also
teaches us that endurance
is not enough.
Listen. We do not sing,
"“We shall endure."”
(audience murmur).
We sing,
"“We shall overcome."”
(applause).
JORDAN: A member of the
Fulton County Commission
made a speech recently
and was quoted in the
Atlanta Constitution as
saying that we have to have
annexation so as to prevent
the center city from
being governed by, quote,
"“the uneducated
and the unfit."”
Now, if that is
the basis for annexation,
I'm opposed to it.
Because the uneducated
and the unfit that
he's talkin' about is me,
is Maynard, is Leroy, or others
of us in the black community
who not only are
educated but are well educated
and certainly are well
fit to do anything in this
community that any white
man can do in this community.
Thank you.
(applause).
JORDAN: Whenever
I come to Atlanta,
I come by and say
"“hello" ” to my mother.
And now I get to say "“hello" ”
to my mother and my brother.
I am proud of having grown
up in Atlanta, Georgia.
I grew up in the first
public housing project
for black people in America.
My father, very committed
to going to work,
gettin' there on time,
and then workin'
later that night
as a bartender in my
mother's catering business.
Work was a big value
in the Jordan family.
I can't remember, after
I was twelve years old,
not having a job somewhere.
I was a head dishwasher
when I was fifteen years old
at Emory University,
because I was the only
one working in the dish room
who could read.
You only came in contact with
white people when you got on
the bus and they sat up
front and you sat in the back.
I remember catching a streetcar.
And my mother would say,
"“Just because you
have to sit back here,
and they have to sit up there,
does not mean that
they are better than you.
You are as good as anybody
on this streetcar."”
This whole experience, um,
convinced me that,
if I got educated,
I could do something about it.
I'd like a dollar for
the times that I've walked
through this campus.
When I went to a piano lesson,
I came right through here.
When I went to the
Ashby Street Theatre,
I walked right through here.
Because I lived
straight that way.
DIRECTOR:
This is your neighborhood.
JORDAN: Yeah.
And one time Benjamin Mays
is leaving his house,
walking through the campus,
and I'm twenty feet behind him.
And he's walking like this.
So I walked like that.
It's the absolute truth.
All of the presidents in
the Atlanta University center
were people to
whom I looked up as a kid:
President Mays and Morehouse,
President Rufus Clement
at Atlanta University,
President Brawley
at Clark College.
The proximity had a big
influence on me and what I
wanted to be.
Every Sunday morning I
looked forward to walking to
St. Paul AME Church with
my father and my brothers.
Whenever I am home in
Atlanta on a Sunday,
I come to St. Paul.
'‘Cause this is home.
Now, right back here is a
pew named for my mother.
When I went to Europe for
the first time and I was, uh,
I forget where I was, but
I bought a fan, you know,
and gave it to her.
And so she would come
and sit on her pew and,
and the other sister would say,
"“Sister, where'd
you get that fan?"”
She says, "Vernon
brought it from Europe."”
(laughs).
She loved it.
She was an unlearned,
unlettered black
women from the South,
with a Ph.D. in life.
I started elementary
school at Walker Street School
in the first grade.
After the first month
my mother was president
of the PTA.
She then became
president of the State PTA
for colored children.
JORDAN: I could
have gone to Howard,
I could have gone to Morehouse.
But I had been to
DePauw right after I
graduated high school.
I knew that I was going to be
the only black in my class.
I wanted to do
something different.
I wanted to be
in another challenging,
boring almost, setting.
My mother wrote me a note.
"“Dear Man"”,
she called me, "“Man."”
And she called me "“Man"”
because young white men
would call my father "“boy."”
And she wanted me to
know that I was a man.
She said, "“Dear Man, we want
you to go to college wherever
you want to go to college.
But it may be a better thing
for you to go to Howard.
You'd be with your own people,
and you might be more
suited academically."”
So I come home, I read my note.
I say, "“Mama,
I'm goin' to DePauw."”
She said, "“All right.
Then we'll take you."”
PHOTOGRAPHER: Beautiful.
(overlapping chatter).
GRADUATE: Yeah, I wanna try.
Could I get a picture
with you at some point,
Mr., Mr. Jordan?
OFFICIAL: Step right in there.
(inaudible).
GRADUATE: Yes, yes, please.
Thank you very much.
(overlapping chatter)
JORDAN: I love
this place, DePauw.
While I learned a lot here,
I also taught a lot,
just by the very
fact of my presence.
That's in part because I
was the only black student
in my class, one of
only five enrolled at DePauw
at the time.
My roommates were
two white Midwesterners.
They were seniors and best
friends and planned to room
together their senior year.
But when they showed
up at 106 Longden Hall,
I was already there for
freshman orientation week.
When they walked into that
room and saw me sitting there,
the look on their
faces said it all,
"“What have we gotten
ourselves into now?"”
They were not
hostile or impolite.
We coexisted for three weeks.
Then one night I came
in from the library,
and they were in the room
in deep conversation.
I spoke to them, and one said,
"“We've been talking about you."”
And I said then,
"“What have you concluded?"”
(laughter).
And they said almost in unison,
"“We have concluded that you
are no different than we are.
You go to sleep at your desk.
You snore."
(laughter).
"“You sing in the shower.
You get mail and you get
cookies and cakes from home.
You play basketball, and
you drink beer and whisky."”
(laughter).
For three years I was the
head waiter at Longden Hall.
And when Richard Nixon
came in 1956,
I was given the honor of
serving the head table.
That photograph of me
with the pitcher in my hand
just over Richard Nixon
was a photograph
that, years later,
President Nixon invited
me to the Oval Office.
And my gift to him was to
show him that photograph,
which he loved.
And he loved it because he said,
"“Vernon, I was a
waiter in college, too."”
He signed the
picture, and I said,
"“Mr. President, what you
need to understand about this
photograph is that it was
taken when both of us were on
our way up."”
JORDAN: I went to law school
out of some sense of mission.
I went to the Howard
Law School in particular
because of its national
reputation in civil rights,
uh, because of its, uh,
Professor Jim Nabrit
initiated the person who
is now president
of the University...
MAN: Yeah...
JORDAN: Initiated the first
schools in civil rights and
who, uh, taught me
constitutional law which is
one of the great
privileges of my life.
I get to Howard.
I'm a freshman.
And there's a lecture
by Thurgood Marshall.
And I, I cannot tell you
what it felt like to walk
into the moot courtroom and
hear Thurgood Marshall talk.
I knew that I was
in the right place.
FAUNTROY:
Howard University School of Law,
it was a place where the most
successful litigation strategy
in American legal
history was put together.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund with
Thurgood Marshall had come
through and begun to
have a series of victories
that led up to Brown.
In the immediate
post-Brown period,
Vernon Jordan is
going to law school,
learning how to take these
victories that were more than
just case studies, but
actually a road map for future
victories in other places.
JORDAN: All of their
dry runs were in the
Howard University
moot courtroom.
As students we would,
during the breaks,
stand four feet away so we
could hear what they were
talkin' about as they
assessed the arguments.
And my ultimate experience
as a young lawyer,
Wiley Branton,
who was the lawyer for
the Little Rock Nine,
moved to my admission to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
And when I took my hand
down after being sworn in,
I looked directly at
Thurgood Marshall,
and Thurgood Marshall,
from the bench
of the Supreme Court,
winked his eye at me.
My mother said, "“That was
the laying on of hands."”
I came home out of
some sense of mission,
feeling that, uh,
I'd come back south,
I could do something
about the problem.
I began my
law career working for
Donald L. Hollowell,
who was then the prominent
civil rights lawyer in Atlanta,
for $35 a week.
And I didn't go to
the office my first day.
I went straight to the
Atlanta Municipal Court to get
students from the Atlanta
Prison Center out of jail.
HUNTER-GAULT: Hollowell went
where angels feared to tread.
You know, you
look back over it now.
But I mean, you're going
into a place where people
have been hung by
the Ku Klux Klan,
and their houses
have been burned.
It was dangerous.
HOLLOWELL: Uh,
you have asked me,
what other plans do we
have in connection with Reverend
Martin Luther King's release.
Of course, this would depend
upon whether or not the court
granted our motion to vacate.
JORDAN: The first case
that I was involved in with
Don Hollowell was eight
weeks after law school.
I was with Nathaniel Johnson
the night before he went to
the electric chair, because
there were no black lawyers in
Augusta, Georgia, in 1959.
GATES: When was
the first time I ever
saw Vernon Jordan?
I saw Vernon Jordan on a
black and white TV set
when I was,
eleven years old.
There was a tall, handsome
black man walking next to a
young black coed.
He was escorting her through
this, a wall of hostility.
HUNTER-GAULT: I didn't get
involved in civil rights until
my senior year in high school.
They came to our school
and asked our principal that,
did they have any top
students who could apply
to the local white college.
Hamilton Holmes was
the first in our class.
He wanted to be a doctor.
I looked at the curriculum.
I wanted to be a journalist.
And that was the
beginning of our journey,
not necessarily to be pioneers,
but to realize our dreams.
We had won, and we were
gonna claim our victory.
It was my mother, Vernon
and me, and, of course,
we were surrounded by all of
the reporters and students
yelling ugly racial epithets.
Vernon was very serious
and very determined.
So I didn't pay much attention
to him when we first met.
He was focused.
He was focused on his mission.
FAUNTROY: He understood that
there were television cameras
that were there recording.
And what we know,
broadcasting images
around the country on
the nightly news
tells a story that is
difficult to ignore.
I'm here, I have agency,
I have humanity,
and I have dignity.
And you all are going to
have to deal with that,
because I'm not going anywhere.
HUNTER-GAULT: We were focused.
I'm here to do a job,
and I'm gonna get this job done.
All of the rest of that
just faded away, to go forth,
go forward, and
get the job done.
JORDAN: In 1961 the NAACP
offered me a job as the
Georgia field director.
I was organizing, and
I was rehabilitating branches
that had gone down.
My first year my
membership results were the
best in the South.
I had the same job
in Georgia that Medgar
had in Mississippi.
But he was older than me,
and he had been doing the
job much longer.
Medgar and I became
very good friends.
MAN: Why do you feel
that it is important for
Negroes to vote?
EVERS: For example,
here in Jackson,
there is not one
single Negro policeman.
Uh, there are some 60,000
Negroes who live in the,
in Jackson, Mississippi,
with no, uh, Negroes
represented on the police force.
JORDAN: Very charismatic
and totally unafraid.
EVERS: I have had a number
of threatening calls,
people calling me, saying
that they were gonna kill me,
uh, saying that they were
gonna blow my home up,
and, uh, saying
that I only had a few
hours to live.
JORDAN: That spring
I called him up, and I said,
"“Medgar, I'm leaving.
I'm gonna work for the
Southern Regional Council."”
He said, "“Vernon,
that's what you should do.
But I can't leave."”
And then he was assassinated.
REPORTER: NAACP official
Medgar Evers was shot and
killed by a sniper.
Evers, a 37-year-old
father of three and a veteran,
was buried in
Arlington National Cemetery.
JORDAN: Medgar knew
what was in store,
and left us too early.
(disco music plays)
In 1970 I was offered the job
as executive director of the
United Negro College Fund,
which meant I had to leave
Atlanta and move to New York.
Achievement, success, record,
making a real difference
in the life of this nation,
is a story of
colleges within the
United Negro College Fund.
When I got to New York,
my most enthusiastic and
committed mentor
was Whitney M. Young.
Whitney has never
gotten his just due.
He revitalized the Urban League.
YOUNG: My only plea is that,
if we must polarize
in this country,
then let us no longer
polarize on the basis of
race or religion
or economic status.
But let us polarize on the
basis of decent people versus
indecent people,
between people...
JORDAN: The black
power structure in New York
didn't like it that Whitney
came from Atlanta to take
over the Urban League,
and they were not consulted.
And then this kid comes from
Atlanta to take over the
College Fund and raise
more money than had
ever been raised.
MAN: The United Negro College
Fund has helped black students
help get an education.
But today there just isn't
enough money, and tomorrow...
PROFESSOR: We're sorry, but
this course has been canceled.
MAN: Please don't
let this happen.
A mind is a terrible
thing to waste.
JORDAN: A year after I
got to New York to run
the College Fund,
Whitney Young died.
And I was asked to
be his successor.
No man can enter lightly
upon the task of carrying the
mission to which Whitney Young
brought such unique wisdom,
effectiveness, and grace.
I accept, not because of the
honor of succeeding a great man,
but out of a deep sense
of duty and responsibility to
use whatever talents and
abilities I have to help black
people in America achieve
their rightful and just place
in this society.
My approach will be my approach.
And, uh, whatever, uh,
however that may be
interpreted in terms of
whether it's moderate or,
or radical or conservative,
that's not for me to judge.
It is for the
Urban League board,
the Urban League constituency,
and black people and white
people generally to, to,
to, to judge what kind of
leadership that will be.
FAUNTROY: The
National Urban League is a
civil rights organization.
And over time it added to
its advocacy to be involved
in lobbying on public
policy changes.
JORDAN: I was the first
non-social worker who headed
up the Urban League.
I thought like I was trained,
like a lawyer.
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: No more
brothers in jail. ♪♪
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: Revolution has come.
CROWD: Off the pigs!
♪ GROUP: Revolution has come. ♪
JORDAN: When I arrived
at the Urban League,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
had been dead for three years.
The NAACP had lost
some of its clout,
taking a back seat to
the strident tone of the
black power movement.
♪ GROUP: Black is beautiful! ♪♪
JORDAN: There was the notion
that there had to be a leader of
the black community.
What single individual would
step up and take the mantle of
Martin Luther King, Jr.?
This was very much in
the mind set of the times.
BROWN: Can black people
survive culturally and
physically in America?
Can we ever be a part of the
existing white institutions?
Or should we be
developing our own?
Can we as a people develop
solutions to our dilemma fast
enough to counteract the
present rate of growth of the
oppressive factors built
into this society by
institutional white racism?
As black people,
we must deal with the issues.
Is it too late?
["“A Black Journal Special" ”
theme music plays].
BROWN:
Tonight on "Black Journal",
Reverend Ralph Abernathy,
Imamu Amiri Baraka,
Reverend Albert Clay,
Mr. Roy Innis,
Mr. Vernon Jordan.
CLAY: Most of the panel
is integrationists which
is outmoded and
obsolete and will tend
to destroy black people.
We have got to,
black people have got
to drive integrationists,
integration organizations,
the black churches and
integrationists to say,
we have got to drive them
out of the black community.
BROWN: All right.
CLAY: We can't put together
a program that's dependent on
dealing with black integration.
BROWN: May we...
CLAY: They are the enemy.
BROWN: All right, Mr. Jordan was
trying to make a point.
And then Mr. Gregory.
JORDAN: I think that
Reverend Clay don't
understand that the,
that those of us who do
take a position on an open
pluralistic society,
that we're not going out
of the black community.
We're not gonna be run out.
And that we're there just
like the tree planted by
the rivers of water.
BROWN: I only have
one more response.
INNIS: Whether, you know,
Mr. Jordan and the other
assimilationists,
integrationists,
would be willing to refrain
from speaking exclusively for
the black community.
To recognize there are two
goals and agree for us to
function and possibly have
a peaceful coexistence to
reinforce each other's goals.
The problem is the
integrationists in conspiracy
to silence the true aspiration
and goal of most black people
which is that of
self-determination.
BROWN: Is there a common
ground then that anyone can
agree upon for the
advancement of all blacks?
CLAY: Yeah.
To get some power.
Uh, either we escape from
powerlessness and get power to
control our own destiny,
or we end up the
victims of genocide.
JORDAN: I think that that
would be a consensus theme if
that's possible, that, uh,
a goal of political and
economic empowerment on
the part of black
people is, is a, is a
desirable goal, and
hopefully an achievable one.
I think that the
difference comes...
MAN: How you get there...
JORDAN: How it relates to,
as it relates to
how we get there
and the means by which
it ought to be achieved.
Black people have to say...
FAUNTROY: Whitney Young
and Vernon Jordan were very
different people.
Vernon Jordan took the baton
and moved the Urban League
into new spaces in terms of
lobbying and in particular
interacting with
corporate America,
and sitting on corporate boards.
GATES: Do you know how
hard it was for him to be the
first Negro to be
seated at those boards,
surrounded by people primarily
with Ivy League educations,
who didn't grow up
knowing any black people?
CLINTON: He wanted to know
how America worked and
how people that he thought
were otherwise decent people
could be supporting
politics and policies that
he deeply disagreed with,
and whether there were
some way to bridge the divide.
And he always tried to
find some way to do that.
BUFFETT: He has an
almost unique position,
because people talk to
him because he's smart,
but they talk to him even
more because he's wise.
If I ask Vernon for a
piece of advice, uh,
I'm going to get something
that's meaningful.
LEE: Vernon is a true
role model for all of us.
I think, if you are lucky enough
to have Vernon on your board,
he does talk to you about,
how do you promote young
executives of color.
And he's also, uh, been
the voice of reason or
conscience for presidents.
JORDAN: Presidential wall.
And every president since
Lyndon Johnson is here.
Here I am with Johnson.
President Nixon right after I
succeeded Whitney Young as the
head of the Urban League.
Well, we got along all right.
I said to him, "“You say
something I don't like,
I will tell you, publicly."”
And that was our deal.
Gerald Ford,
President Reagan, Bill Clinton.
And here I am with my
fellow Georgian, Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter of Georgia came
to Urban League meetings
proudly wearing our
equality pin in his lapel.
In the short time he
has been President,
the sad fact is that the list
of what the administration has
not done far exceeds its
list of accomplishments.
(applause).
Black people didn't
vote for Nixon,
and black people
didn't vote for Ford.
(applause).
They voted, they
voted for Jimmy Carter,
and it is not enough
for President Carter to be
just a little bit better
than his predecessors.
(applause).
Sometime in, uh, 1977,
when I keynoted
the Urban League,
and he said to me,
"“You could have told me
that in, in the Oval."”
And I said, "“If you think that,
you don't understand
your job or mine."”
He understood, I think,
ultimately my role as an
advocate for black people.
Black people and the whole
process of desegregation and
integration are always
the ones that have to
give up something.
And, uh, I think that
black people generally
across this country,
especially in the urban cities,
are a little weary of
having to give up for the,
for the comforts
of, of the majority.
The true answer,
it seems to me...
ADAMS: I went with him on
several speaking engagements.
In each of those
cities he made very
strong arguments
about economic equality.
JORDAN: The lesson
here, my friends,
is that members of the white
business power structure
are bad politicians.
They fail to understand
that blacks will no
longer be junior partners
in the old alliance.
Not only...
ADAMS: And he was strong.
His voice was strong,
and he was powerful,
and he was delivering.
I mean, he was bringin' it.
JORDAN: What you
have to understand, Mr. Hyde,
is, you see, I do
not trust white people in
the South with my rights.
Masses of black people...
ADAMS: But I said to him,
I sad, "“Dad, you know,
don't you get worried
saying stuff like this to
all these white people?"”
He said,
"“No. You gotta say it.
You gotta,
you gotta tell it."”
And I said, "“Wow."”
I mean, it's just, you know,
"“Don't you worry
somebody's gonna try
to hurt you?"”
Two weeks later...
JORDAN: I did not know
what had happened.
I did not know why it happened.
When I was on the ground
bleeding, I was saying,
"“I have to be in
Houston tomorrow."”
I did not know that
I was not going to
Houston until I woke up
after the operation.
ADAMS: We got to the hospital.
He just had so many, uh,
tubes and wires all around him.
But they let us go up and,
you know, touch his hand.
And I stroked his head
and told him I was there.
JORDAN: I did not know
what my future was.
And when I was in the
hospital for 98 days,
I was only thinking
about one thing,
"“What do I have to
do to get out of here?"”
CLINTON: In 1980 I lost
in the Reagan landslide.
It was a tough year for
me and, uh, Hillary,
and a much tougher
year for Vernon.
That's when he was shot.
Sometime in early 1981 he
called Hillary, and he said,
"“You got any
grits down there?"”
(laughs).
And she said,
"“What do you mean?
Did you mean New York
or Washington?"”
She's, "“No. In Arkansas.
You got any grits?"”
And he says,
"“I, I need some."”
She said, "“Well,
when do you want '‘em?"”
He said, "“How's
tomorrow mornin'?"”
He flew all the way to Arkansas,
because I was the youngest
ex-governor in decades in
American history.
And he didn't want
me to give up.
It was like the,
"“Life for me ain't
been no crystal stairs,"”
like the old
Langston Hughes poem.
You know, it was the, he said,
"“It's just a
splinter on the stair."”
He said, "“You know, you gotta
keep climbing the stairs."”
JORDAN: We're here at Akin
Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld
where I have been a
senior partner, uh, since, um,
since January of 1982.
CHENAULT: The way I
think about it is,
Vernon was one of the first
crossover artists at that time,
someone moving from a
civil rights organization to a
corporate law firm.
That was a first.
MONROE: A lot of people
thought your decision to leave
the Urban League now was
deserting an important cause
just when it needed your type
of leadership, uh, the most.
What do you say to those
who think you're abandoning a
vital cause when you've
served all your adult life
in order to go make money?
JORDAN: Well, uh, go and
make money, that's, uh,
that's your own view of it.
Uh, I believe that ten
years is long enough in this
particular capacity.
Uh, I do not believe
that there is ever a
good time to leave.
Uh, nor do I believe that,
uh, any one individual is
absolutely indispensable
to progress.
So why do I, I do not
view my resignation, uh,
as abandonment.
I view it as a refreshing
interlude for an institution,
uh, to get new leadership,
fresh leadership.
I also view it as a
professional and personal
opportunity for myself
to pursue a course of,
of work that is exciting,
that is
intellectually challenging,
and that will be
rewarding to me.
GATES: We are all looking
this way for the revolution.
And Vernon is over here
in corporate America,
making the revolution.
CHENAULT: I believe his
movement to a corporate law
firm brought the civil rights
movement to the next level.
PIERCE: One of the factors
that I took into account when
I interviewed, um, with firms
was whether there was an
African American in the
firm that was of note.
Because I thought, just
like many people before me,
that I would stand on the
shoulders of that other
already successful individual.
Um, and this firm had Vernon.
If you think about what the
movement was about, equality,
equal opportunity, I look
at Vernon, and I think,
"“Boy, that's, that's
what we want to achieve."”
JORDAN: That have
been coming since 1982,
and I'm almost 83 years old.
I like it.
(laughs).
It's very simple.
The thought of retirement
does not excite me.
MAN: Yeah I wish he'd slow down
a little bit, actually.
(laughs).
I think his schedule and
his desire to keep at it
every day fuels him.
JORDAN: Diplomatic row here.
Now this street right
here to the left,
at the end of that street on
the right hand side is where
the Clinton's have a house.
Now this house right here,
that's where
Kelly Ann Conway lives.
WOMAN: Did she
come say "Hi" to you?
JORDAN: I welcomed her
to the neighborhood and said
"“hello" ” and all that.
(fire crackles)
Sometimes when I'm sittin'
down here at the fire I think,
"“This is a long way
from University Homes."
The housing project
where I grew up.
Long way.
JACOBS: Vernon joined
Lazard in January of 2000.
It was really fortunate,
because when Vernon arrived
the office that he took
was literally next to mine.
And I had the great
fortune of just being close
to him whenever he
was here which was
four days a week.
He kind of adopted me.
And he became a real
friend obviously, but also,
very importantly, a
mentor to me over that whole
period of time.
JORDAN: There he is.
(overlapping chatter).
MAN: Thank you.
JORDAN: This is what
it's all about here.
LEWIS: My assistant will say,
"“Vernon is
coming up to see you."”
Well, I know that will
mean fifteen minutes from now,
because Vernon will stop and
engage, uh, with everybody.
Vernon knows something about
almost everybody that he
passes in the halls.
And he has a word or
two to say to everybody.
MAN: The Washington Post
has that too.
KOOPERSMITH: I would not be
sitting in the chair as chair
of this law firm if it
was not for Vernon Jordan.
I mean, I have, uh, zero
doubt that his mentorship
is how I got here.
In 1981 there were
23,000 of us at the
Philadelphia Civic Center,
and he was my
commencement speaker when I
graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania.
And fast-forward
fifteen years later,
I joined Akin Gump and
attended my first partner
retreat, and saw
him across the room,
and walked straight
across and said,
"“Mr. Jordan, you will not
remember me from the 20,000,
23,000 people at the
Philadelphia Civic Center.
But I remember
every word you said."”
And Vernon being Vernon, said,
"“Young lady,
I don't know who you are.
I don't know what your name is.
But you are my new best friend "”"
And it was true.
He shepherded me
through that meeting,
introduced me to everyone
of importance at the firm,
and here we are.
CHENAULT: I very proudly hold
myself out as a mentee of
Vernon Jordan.
In 1984 Vernon was on
the board of directors
at American Express,
and evidently my name
came up at the board meeting
as someone who
had very high potential.
And so Vernon
called me and said,
"“Ken, this is Vernon Jordan."”
And he asked me if
I would come to breakfast.
And the breakfast,
it lasted for five hours.
And he talked to me
about my aspirations,
but he also told me his story.
And it was wonderful and
certainly my journey in the
corporate world I
encountered prejudice,
and I encountered skepticism
and whether I belonged.
But I think the mentality
that I had was very much a
mentality that I had
a right to be there.
And I was going to push
forward and deal with
obstacles because of leaders
like Vernon Jordan who had
demonstrated throughout
their life that obstacles were
to be overcome.
JORDAN: The feeling is,
I had a lot of help.
And so I'm here to
help others if I can.
CLINTON: I never saw
him turn down an opportunity
to try to help a
young person who needed help,
including to give good advice.
So there are,
quite apart from
all these jobs he's held and
all these board
positions he's held and all
these things he's done,
and the fact that he
was very close to me,
so close that he turned
down my plea to him
to become attorney general.
I said, "“Vern, you
can become the first
black attorney general."”
He said, "“Yeah." ” He said,
"“And I know exactly what
the job is."” And he said,
"“What else, what's gonna
happen when you need somebody
to just talk to you?"”
And he said, "“I, I don't
want to be in the government.
I want to be your friend."”
JORDAN: When I testified
in the impeachment trial
of Bill Clinton,
my testimony was not
put in the record,
because the Republicans
kept it out.
And here is my testimony
that I have framed.
"“What was taught to be by my
mother is that the only thing
that I own totally and
completely is my integrity.
And my integrity has
been on trial here.
The President is my friend.
He was before this happened.
He is now, and he will
be when this is over."”
CLINTON: He's a fast friend.
He doesn't quit
on people that he loves,
even if they fail.
MAN: Do I put the
syrup in the fridge?
WOMAN: Huh, just put it there.
MAN: Okay.
(phone ringing)
JORDAN: Hello...
What do you got to tell me?
Do you have a
telephone number for
the Paris ambassador?
Yeah, well, I'll have
Doug handle that.
WOMAN: Uh, what do you have?
MAN: Some railroads, money.
How's that?
WOMAN: I'll get
you a Monopoly...
JORDAN: I've been
here twenty years.
I don't own it.
I rent it.
I think you only own one house.
And if the pipes burst in
January, it's not my problem.
(laughs).
That's right.
It's not my problem.
I know that I have been
blessed with extraordinary
mentors in my career.
Hey, how are you?
I am also very
certain that there is
no substitute for a
commitment to excellence,
hard work, and sacrifice.
I'm pretty sure
that that is, in part,
the explanation for
whatever I may have achieved.
But I didn't get here by myself.
♪
NARRATOR: If you
missed a moment,
you can watch this
film online and learn more
And join the
conversation online with
#VernonJordanPBS.
NARRATOR: Funding for
"Vernon Jordan: Make it Plain"
was provided by Ford Foundation
Just Films.
And by the
Andrew W. Mellon foundation.
NARRATOR: You're watching PBS.