initiatives, instead actively rolling back the legislative and pol-
icy gains blacks had made whenever and wherever he could.
Black America had not faced such a hostile administration,
and one whose regressive policies clearly had the support of a
substantial segment of the electorate, since that of Woodrow
Wilson seventy years before. That made it the more imperative
to rebut the falsehoods of the Reagan policies and put forward
cogent reasons for returning to the progressive-policy track.

This speech was important to me because it would mark

the end of my service as president of the National Urban
League. A month later, I would announce that I was resign-
ing from the organization and the search for my successor
would begin. At the time, only three people knew of my
plans: my late wife, Shirley; Coy Eklund, chairman of the Ur-
ban League Board of Trustees and chairman and chief execu-
tive of the Equitable Life Assurance Society; and Lisle C.
Carter, the trustees’ vice chairman and president of the Uni-
versity of the District of Columbia. Many people have as-
sumed I left the league because of the attempt on my life. But
had the shooting that occurred in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on
May , , been a factor in my decision, I would never
have returned to the organization after my recovery. In fact,
my motivation for leaving was much more positive. I had
been in office for ten years and that was long enough. It was
time for me to pass the baton to new leadership and go on to
a new challenge: a partnership at Akin, Gump, Strauss,
Hauer & Feld, the Washington, D.C.–based law firm of my
longtime, treasured friend Robert S. Strauss. I could leave

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VERNON E. JORDAN, JR.

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