AP Reports on U of Pennsylvania Commencement Address by Vernon Jordan '57

May 19, 1981

May 19, 1981, Greencastle, Ind. — "National Urban League President Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who suffered a gunshot wound last year, warned more than 3,500 of the University of Pennsylvania that they were entering a world polluted with 'pockets of hate,'" begins a nationally distributed Associated Press article. "Jordan said in a commencement address Monday that the world has changed since he graduated nearly three decades ago from DePauw University, 'but not nearly enough' -- the wrongs that still remain face the new graduates."

The story notes that Jordan received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the ceremony.

Read the full text here.

Vernon Jordan delivered DePauw's commencement address in 1973.  Details can be found in this previous story.

Back