On May 29, 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the civil rights leader and National Urban League president Vernon Jordan was the guest speaker at the Equal Opportunity Dinner for the Fort Wayne chapter of the Urban League.[1] By all accounts, this appeared to be an ordinary day for Jordan.
Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr. was a born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1935 and did his undergraduate studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He majored in political science and was intentional in choosing DePauw, which was a nearly all-white school at the time. Even at that young age Vernon Jordan wanted to challenge the established ways that things were done and pave the way for new opportunities for African American men and women. Upon graduating Depauw University as the only African American in a class of 400 students, Vernon Jordan studied at Howard University and graduated with a J.D. in 1960.[2] Since then, he had worked with Donald Hollowell fighting Jim Crow laws, the NAACP as a field secretary in Georgia, and as the director of the Southern Regional Council’s Voter Education Project.[3] Since 1971, Jordan had served as the president of the National Urban League.[4] In 1980 Jordan had been speaking across the country promoting the National Urban League and its significance to American society during the presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. His speaking engagement at the Equal Opportunity Dinner at the Fort Wayne Marriot Motor Inn was only one stop on his national tour.[5]
After the banquet, Jordan decided to go with a white woman named Martha Coleman to eat dinner at her house in the city.[6] When Jordan returned to the Marriot Motor Inn, Coleman dropped him off at the side entrance of the hotel, because it was closer to his room.[7] While getting out of the car, Jordan collapsed to the ground; he had been shot in the back with a bullet from a .30-06 rifle.[8] According to Jordan, the bullet left a hole in his back that was the size of a man’s fist, later causing him to have 5 operations to remove the bullet fragments and close the wound.[9] At first the police and FBI had trouble determining the identity of the shooter was because Jordan was shot in the back at night.[10] A year after the shooting the police identified and arrested Joseph Paul Franklin.[11]
Before this assassination attempt, Franklin was known across the country as an outspoken and violent racist. In 1980 alone, Franklin was linked to eleven racial killings.[12] One of the most disturbing incidents was when he killed two black men who were jogging with two white women in Utah.[13] Franklin did not hide his racist attitudes. He associated himself with the American Nazi Party, the Klu Klux Klan, and was not afraid to tell people about his hatred of interracial relationships.[14] Despite Franklin being arrested for shooting Jordan, the state did not believe that there was enough evidence to charge him with attempted murder, so the cause went to a federal court to determine if Jordan’s civil rights were violated.[15] In August of 1982 Joseph Paul Franklin was tried in northern Indiana under Judge Allen Sharp. Franklin was acquitted of the accusations in the Vernon Jordan case by an all-white jury.[16] Despite being acquitted in this case, Franklin was already serving four life sentences for other crimes he had committed across the country.[17] While serving these sentences, Franklin reportedly admitted to an inmate that he had shot Jordan.[18] After the case, Franklin spent the rest of his life in a Missouri prison where he was awaiting his execution for murdering a man in St. Louis outside of a synagogue in 1977. Thirty-six years later, Franklin would be put to death by lethal injection on November 20, 2013.[19]
After this attack on his life, Vernon Jordan continued to fight for what he believed in. However, Jordan decided in December of 1980 to resign as the President of the National Urban League.[20] After leaving the Urban League, he joined a private law firm in Washington, D.C. dealing with “corporate and political affairs.” In 1992 Jordan advised Bill Clinton’s Presidential Campaign and lead his transition team, but opted to remain an unofficial advisor during Clinton’s presidency.[21] Since his time in the Clinton administration, Jordan has continued to work in politics while also becoming an influence in the financial realm while still fighting for civil rights in the United States.[22] He has faced many challenges throughout his career, even an attack on his life, but he still continues to fight for the equality of Americans in modern society.
[1] Jo Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2 Indicted in Shooting of Vernon Jordan,” Archives, New York Times, June 3, 1982, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/03/us/racist-who-killed-2-indicted-in-shooting-of-vernon-jordan.html.
[2] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed April 2, 2019, https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120.
[3] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed March 16, 2019, https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120.
[4] Ibid.
[5]Vernon E. Jordan and Annette Gordon-Reed, Vernon can read!: a memoir (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 280.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 281.
[8] Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2”.
[9] Jordan, and Gordon Reed, Vernon Can Read: a Memoir, 283.
[10] Linda G. Caleca, “A year later, few clues in Vernon Jordan shooting,” UPI, May 28, 1981, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/05/28/A-year-later-few-clues-in-Vernon-Jordan-shooting/7539359870400/.
[11] Jordan and Gordon-Reed, Vernon Can Read: a Memoir, 296.
[12] Linda G. Caleca, “Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan testified today he though…,” UPI, August 10, 1982. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/08/10/Civil-rights-leader-Vernon-Jordan-testified-today-he-thought/6415397800000/.
[13] Thomas, “Racist who Killed 2.”
[14] Ibid.
[15] Jordan and Gordon-Reed, Vernon Can Read: a Memoir, 296.
[16] “Federal Jury Returns Verdict of Not Guilty in Jordan Shooting,” Archives, New York Times, August 18, 1982. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/18/us/federal-jury-returns-verdict-of-not-guilty-in-jordan-shooting.html.
[17] Ibid.
[18] “Vernon Jordan Jr.,” Biography, accessed March 16, 2019, https://www.biography.com/people/vernon-jordan-jr-9358120.
[19] Lateef Mungin, “Serial killer Joseph Franklin executed after hours of delay,” CNN, November 21, 2013, https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/20/justice/missouri-franklin-execution/index.html.
[20] Caleca, “Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan testified.”
[21] “Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.” Encycylopaedia Britannica, accessed April 2, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vernon-E-Jordan-Jr.
[22] “Vernon Jordan ’57 Returning to Depauw to Address Class of 2018 at May’s 179th Commencement,” Depauw University, November 24, 2017, https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/33325/.