Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir

From Barnes & Noble

Vernon Jordan has made the advancement of civil rights his life's goal. As a boy in Atlanta, he learned from his parents how to survive in a Jim Crow world. After graduating from a predominantly white college, he built a legal career, helped desegegrate the University of Georgia, became a field director for the NAACP, and ran the United Negro College Fund and the National Urban League. Jordan's tale is an American success story.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The greatest value of Jordan's reading is that it tells the listener some things about the man.

Ebony

An inspirational life story...[Vernon Can Read!] charts the rise of this charismatic and influential leader.

Booklist

No one can gain a comprehensive view of the movement for equal rights...without paying attention to what Jordan stands for.

New York Times Book Review

... a recollection of the pain suffered and the bravery asserted by black Americans...in the struggle for political and economic equality.

Jill Nelson

A marvelous book, full of candor, humor and an intimate love for family.... Thank goodness [Vernon] can write, too.USA Today,

Book Page November

...candid, worldly, controversial and smart.... a marvelous memoir by a man who knows what to tell and how to tell it.

Publishers Weekly

Dismayed that his daughter, Vickee, showed little true comprehension of the world of the Deep South in which he grew up, a world of forced servility and oppression toward blacks, Jordan decided that telling his story would help to "bridge that gap" between their experiences. He set out to write a "very personal take on the black experience since the end of the Second World War." The title of this memoir comes from an incredulous outburst by Robert Maddox, "one of the leading figures in Atlanta's white elite" for whom Jordan worked as a chauffeur while home from college on summer break. The irony is that, although Jordan can write, the actual reading of his writing leaves much to be desired. Often a writer's reading of their own words adds depth to the work. Unfortunately, that formula fails here. The listener does not get the sense of being spoken to; instead Jordan reads in a somewhat formal, oratorical tone. Although the work does a fine job of chronicling the progress of blacks in Jordan's lifetime, it does not delve very deeply into Jordan's personal feelings and beliefs. This production's lack of personality echoes that sentiment. Based on the Public Affairs hardcover (Forecasts, Oct. 15, 2001). (Dec. 18, 2001) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

While Jordan's autobiography garnered interest from the moment its publication was announced, its ultimate form surprises. Disappointment awaits those expecting Clinton/ Lewinsky dirt, since the book "effectively ends in the 1980s. All that has happened to me since then is too close to be considered true memories," Jordan writes. But his narrative mission here is not recent political scandal. Jordan means to "bridge the gap" between the years African-Americans were forced to move to the back of the bus and the time when "a young black girl [Vernon's daughter Vickee] could be so confident in her humanity that she found it unfathomable that anyone could try and take it away from her." The bridge, of course, is Jordan himself, and he tells his success story with a concentration and devotion that gives it all the fervor and logic of a good long speech. While readers are treated to some particulars of Jordan's youth (waiting tables for his mother's catering business, attending segregated Atlanta schools in the 1940s and early '50s and then the predominantly white DePauw University) and the trajectory of his early career as a field director for the NAACP, executive director of the United Negro College Fund and president of the National Urban League), there are few more personal revelations. With its lack of extraneous detail and its studious avoidance of private thoughts, this is less a traditional memoir than an extended exposition of an impressive CV. Even so, it should remind people of this chapter in American history and Jordan's crucial role in it. (Oct. 22) Forecast: With Jordan's high profile, this is an automatic big seller. If it's marketed correctly, it should have a wide appeal, tooanyone interested in the history of the civil rights movement will appreciate this detailed account of the people and organizations that helped transform a segregated nation. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

KLIATT

To quote from the review of the audiobook in KLIATT, January 2003: This is a moving memoir of courage, kindness and caring that chronicles the details (frequently grim) of growing up, by a distinguished African American leader who came of age just before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Vernon Jordan was raised in Atlanta. His parents taught him the value of hard work, honesty, and getting an education. He went to DePauw University in Indiana, an all-white school, and then got a law degree from Howard. This was followed by years of work as a civil rights leader, working with the NAACP, the United Negro College fund, and finally 10 years as the leader of the Urban League. Then, after opening many doors for black people, he went through them himself and became a successful corporate lawyer. Jordan is a "people person," and his book makes clear the importance of the many business and professional relationships he built up over the course of his life. The book's title is from one of Jordan's early employers who mockingly told his relatives that "Vernon can read!," right in front of him. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2001, Perseus, 343p. illus. index.,
— Susan Offner

Library Journal

Many will remember Jordan as a close friend of former president Bill Clinton who tried to help intern Monica Lewinsky get a job after she left the White House. Few will note that he was the Georgia field director of the NAACP at the time civil rights leader Medgar Evers was head of the same organization in Mississippi. Jordan also served as executive director of the United Negro College Fund and eventually became president of the National Urban League after the death of Whitney Young. He attended DePaul University in the early days of the Civil Rights movement and worked to secure the rights of blacks in Georgia. This is a standard, run-of-the-mill autobiography until Jordan reveals the assassination attempt on his life and his decision to leave the Urban League to join a private law firm. The author's reading is flat at points, and his Southern accent and mispronunciations are grating; one wishes that an actor had been employed to provide some emotion and continuity to the narration. Recommended for libraries with African American history, biography, and American studies collections. Danna Bell-Russel, Library of Congress Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.