An American civil rights leader, Vernon Jordan (born 1935) was executive director of the National Urban League from 1972 to 1982 and later one of the few African American partners in a major law firm in the United States.

Vernon E. Jordan was born August 15, 1935, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a mail clerk in the U.S. Army and his mother ran a local catering service. Jordan was educated in the Atlanta public schools and graduated from DePauw University in 1957. For his legal training Jordan attended the Howard University Law School where he received the J.D. in 1960.

Jordan then returned to Atlanta to practice law. Almost immediately he became involved in a landmark civil rights case of the era. Jordan and two other Atlanta attorneys sued the University of Georgia for failing to admit African American students. The suit, on behalf of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, resulted in...