Although best known later in life for his relationship with former President Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Vernon Jordan, who died last week at 85, had a significant career as a civil rights leader and was a friend to multiple presidents on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, the arc of his life was a testament to the ways in which race relations in the United States improved over that time.

Born in Georgia in 1935, Jordan left the South to attend DePauw University in Indiana, and he got his law degree from Howard University. He then worked in the civil rights movement and for the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Urban League.