Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking OutThe long and storied career of Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. one of the nations finest speakers, has carried him from work on the civil rights front lines in the South to the National Urban League to positions of influence at the highest level of business and politics. A friend and confidant to presidents, Vernon Jordan has never forgotten the men and women, from Wiley Branton to Martin Luther King, from Fannie Lou Hamer to Whitney Young to Primus King, whose oratorical skill in service to social justice deeply influenced him. Their examples, and voices, mixed with Vernons own make this book both a history and an embodiment of black speech at its finest, full of emotion, controlled force, righteous indignation, love of country, and awe in front of the challenges ahead. |
Contents
URBAN LEAGUE BEGINNINGS | 1 |
NEW IDEAS FOR THE NEW SOUTH | 29 |
BATTLING THE CALLOUSNESS OF POLITICAL REALITY | 47 |
DECLARING OUR INTERDEPENDENCE | 74 |
CIVIL RIGHTS | 91 |
OUR CHILDREN OUR PEERS | 116 |
A YEAR OF CASCADING CHANGE | 159 |
A POWERFUL VOICE | 182 |
A TRUE ALFALFAN AT HEART | 211 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 235 |
Common terms and phrases
Adam Clayton Powell administration administration’s affirmative action Alfalfa Club Atlanta basic believe black Americans black church black citizens black community black poor black preachers Carter cities civil rights movement companies conference Congress corporate social responsibility counterrevolution decade Democratic discrimination economic election equality executive faith federal food stamps freedom Georgia hope Howard University human income issues Japan Japanese Johnson justice Law School lawyer leaders leadership lives major ment millions moral NAACP National Urban League Nixon opportunity organizations percent political poverty president Proclamation Day programs progress race racial racial profiling racism Rankin Reagan counterrevolution reform Second Reconstruction sector segregation share society South Carolina Southern speak speech struggle Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall tion tonight tradition unemployment Urban League movement Voting Rights Act Washington White House Whitney words