Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Vernon E., Jr. Jordan (Author, Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2001

A number-one Washington Post bestseller, this memoir is the unforgettable story of a life and its times. As a student in Atlanta, Vernon Jordan had a summer job driving a white banker around town. During the man's afternoon naps, Jordan passed the time reading books, a fact that astounded his boss. "Vernon can read!" the man exclaimed to his relatives. Nearly fifty years later, Vernon Jordan, long-time civil rights leader, adviser and close friend to presidents and business leaders, remembers the sweeping struggles, changes, and dangers of black life during the civil rights revolution.

After attending a predominantly white college in the Midwest and graduating from Howard University Law School, Jordan dedicated himself to the civil rights movement. He led the drive to register black voters in the South and was president of the National Urban League, one of the great civil rights organizations of the era, where he was instrumental in integrating American businesses and providing economic and social support to the expanding black middle class. He survived a white racist's assassination attempt and later became a pillar of America's legal, corporate, and political worlds.

But Jordan's life was shaped in his early years, and this book is also a moving testament to the family whose support and courage provided the framework for his achievements. Vernon Can Read! chronicles a life of courage, pride, sacrifice, style, and accomplishment.

Editorial Reviews

From 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).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; Unabridged edition (December 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586481266
• ISBN-13: 978-1586481261
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.2 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,449,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional "Reading" Skills, November 26, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vernon Can Read! A Memoir (Hardcover)

Until reading this uncommonly personal and revealing memoir, I knew very little about Jordan the human being although I was already well-aware of his public career which includes leadership positions in the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, and the Urban League as well as subsequent prominence in the private sector as (for lack of a better term) a "powerbroker" in Washington, D.C. while continuing to serve on the governing boards of several major corporations. Unfairly, I think, he is most widely recognized as the friend to whom then President Clinton turned for assistance when attempting to help Monica Lewinsky obtain a job after that scandal began to unfold. In this memoir, however, Jordan limits his attention to the years ending in 1981 when he resigned from the Urban League. Whatever differences there may be between him and Jack Welch (obviously there are several), both men credit their mothers with giving them the values, determination, and encouragement needed as they took on progressively greater challenges while encountering progressively more formidable obstacles. I was especially interested in Jordan's straightforward explanation of his differences with other black leaders, notably his determination to work within the economic system (capitalism) to achieve social and political objectives. He also disagreed with those black leaders who supported the Palestinian cause and thereby exacerbated black-Jewish relations. Jordan seems to be a consummate pragmatist, determined to produce desired results (e.g. a higher standard of living and a better quality of life for all have-nots, whatever their race) rather than merely indulge in self-serving rhetoric and public posturing (e.g. conducting press conferences in conjunction with crises to generate personal publicity). In this book, he shares dozens of anecdotes without at any time seeming self-serving. "Vernon can read!" but he also knows how to forge alliances, to open and then nourish channels of communication and cooperation, and -- in process --to celebrate his own humanity in ways and to an extent no resume could possibly indicate. If and when he deems it appropriate and is so inclined, I hope Jordan will shift his attention to the last 20 years and again discuss his experiences, not as a public figure but as a man with much of value to share.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Random Walk Down Race Street...Through Grace & Discipline, December 8, 2001

By 

Patricia B. Ross (Wellesley, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vernon Can Read! A Memoir (Hardcover)

In finishing Vernon Jordan's book, I'm impressed by the fact of how important memoir's are to our culture. He is a black man who has not only done very well, but one who also has lived well by virtue of the fact that he began life within the warmth and care of two very nurturing parents who had the wisdom to cultivate his best talents, and those of his siblings, no doubt. As a Christian family, the values imparted were purposeful, deep and rooted in the dignity of equality even while social inequities were a part of our American life. That strength has seen him though the vagaries which always accompany the offensiveness of that inequity that alone can produce the injustice which undermines entire lives. There is little doubt that his has been a life of reserve and limited self expression within the context of the larger world upon that rise to esteem he has worked so hard and so humbly to achieve, and he acknowledges the fortunate guidance and commitment of his wonderful mother whose pride is unmatched as only a mother's can be. Under her tutelage and that of his dad, he has had the good fortune to meet and marry two wonderful women who've provided him with the care, intimacy and support his mother taught him to expect because he deserved that. Through that love, the beginnings of strength flower into a tolerance for life that can supercede hardships to enable the radiance of such warmth and excellence to be noticed by others and embraced by them for the benefit of others, confident in one's own purpose and direction. Part of his charm is that he lived during a time, obviously, when women were respected for their value and their ways, and men were willing to work for that privilege of romance and companionship that makes for healthy and committed relationships. It is particularly striking in that these qualities are seen in the life of a black man rather than where we are conditioned to view it, in a white man. That fact greatly enhances the value of his memoir to the African American population who have had few role models at so high a level of business, law, government and politics. Much of his success appears to be due to his incredible ability for self reflection along with the ability to make decisions that work in the wider world as he was able to define it for himself always keeping his mother (and others) as his chief confidant in her belief of his potential. It also shows the value of human potential through that love and confidence and its ability to transform our lives despite setbacks. It's a very worthy and candid look inside a world few can glimpse but many can learn from, and should be an inspiration to all of those who embark upon his journey through his revelations. To whites, it should dispel myths and satisfy curiosities about the reliability and excellence of executives in people of color, and show that it is the style, character and personality of the person rather than the color of the skin that is the real difference.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars But Vernon Can't Write ( A Biography), January 11, 2002

By 

Cre8ive "emlx" (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir (Audio Cassette)

At one point Vernon reflects on a gathering of contemporaries during the 1970s. Asked to speak openly about himself and his emotions during a gathering (Author quips~ in a very seventies fashion) Vernon got so fed up at the gathering and being asked to open up to others that he said "This isn't going to happen" got up and left. And I think the same mentality carried oven when Vernon Can Read was written. Mr Jordan never had the propensity to open up and let the reader feel emotionally involved in this book, and in his life. As we watched him hop job to job and talk in acronyms(for entirely too long), we got a very two dimensional character, as if we were being led on a slide show of Vernon's life. He comes off as being brash, self-important and rude in some spots, but the reader never got to appreciate his rudeness or infact to really get to know him. His reputation led me to read the book, but this was also the downfall of Vernon Can Read, the author tried to uphold his reputation while witholding frankness and vulnerability. In the end I was left clamoring for the guy who got drunk at Katherine Graham's house and was belting out tunes with Clinton (picture in the Book), but instead I got a lawyer showing slides of his life.