VERNON JORDAN

President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 relief package in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, March 15, 2021, in Washington. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses have launched an ambitious tour this week to promote the $1.9 trillion plan as a way to battle the pandemic and boost the economy. “We want to avoid a situation where people are unaware of what they’re entitled to,” Harris said at the culinary academy. “Shots in arms and money in pockets,” Biden said at the White House. And he mocked Biden's talk of Americans working toward merely being able to gather in small groups by July 4th as “bizarre.”The Biden plan cleared Congress without any backing from Republicans, despite polling that found broad public support.

The National Urban League held a memorial service on Tuesday to honor civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. Jordan, who rose from humble beginnings in the segregated South to become a champion of civil rights, died last week. Jordan led the Urban League from 1971 to 1981, assuming leadership after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act. Under his leadership, the Urban League added 17 more chapters and its budget swelled to more than $100 million. "In the end, Vernon Jordan was in the freedom business," the former president said of his neighbor and friend.

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“Today, the world lost an influential figure in the fight for civil rights and American politics, Vernon Jordan. An icon to the world and a lifelong friend to the NAACP, his contribution to moving our society toward justice is unparalleled. In 2001, Jordan received the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for a lifetime of social justice activism. His exemplary life will shine as a guiding light for all that seek truth and justice for all people.”

Civil rights leader Vernon Jordan has died at 85 Vernon Jordan helped integrate the South, fought for economic equality in the Black community and counseled presidents and business leaders. Michelle Miller looks back on his life.

In this November 27, 2006 file photo, Vernon Jordan walks outside the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. In this July 27, 1977 photo, Vernon Jordan, President of the National Urban League, talks to reporters during a press conference in Washington. Under Jordan's leadership, the Urban League added 17 more chapters and its budget swelled to more than $100 million. He resigned from the Urban League in 1982 to become a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld. Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr., was born in Atlanta on Aug. 15, 1935, the second of Vernon and Mary Belle Jordan's three sons.

FILE - In this April 9, 2014 file photo, civil rights activist Vernon Jordan introduces former President Bill Clinton during the Civil Rights Summit in Austin, Texas. And he made them better,” Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said in the statement. “Vernon Jordan knew the soul of America, in all of its goodness and all of its unfulfilled promise. Under his leadership, the Urban League added 17 more chapters and its budget swelled to more than $100 million. He resigned from the Urban League in 1982 to become a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld.