executive politician statesman
Everett Jordan was born on September 8, 1896 in Ramseur, North Carolina, United States, was one of six children born to the Reverend Henry Harrison Jordan, a lawyer turned Methodist minister, and Annie Elizabeth Sellers. The Reverend Jordan's ministry took him to many North Carolina towns. For a strict Methodist household, Jordan was considered rather unruly.
Jordan dropped out of Rutherford College Preparatory School in 1913 and then out of Trinity College (later Duke University) in 1915. While he never possessed much aptitude for schooling, his love for education endured.
Jordan went to work as a clerk in an uncle's jewelry store in Wellington, Kansas, and then went into the army, serving in the Tank Corps in 1918 and 1919 and with the Army of Occupation in Germany in 1919. He returned to his uncle's store in Kansas and in about 1922 moved to Gastonia, North Carolina, to work in a textile mill, advancing from floor sweeper to mill hand to superintendent.
In 1927, another uncle and other members of his mother's family bought an abandoned cotton mill in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. The uncle asked Jordan to manage it and eventually saw to it that Jordan had the controlling stock. Within a decade the mill, which produced yarn, had turned a sufficient profit. The business, known as the Sellers Manufacturing Company, expanded considerably with the purchase of two other mills in North Carolina, the Jordan Spinning Company in Cedar Falls in 1939 and the Royal Cotton Mill Company in Wake Forest in 1945. Jordan was an innovator in mercerized cotton yarns and combined yarns.
Jordan disapproved of unions in his mills, managing to remove one from one of his plants and preventing any efforts to organize in his others. He was known to pitch in when he was needed, whether it be repairing a piece of equipment or making a loan for the down payment on a worker's home.
Jordan became active in state Democratic politics in the mid-1930s. He was a vigorous fund-raiser and served as chairman of the state Democratic executive committee (1949 - 1954) and as a Democratic national committeeman from North Carolina (1954 - 1958). He gained the reputation as an experienced behind-the-scenes deal maker. On April 19, 1958, Luther Hodges, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, appointed Jordan to fill the unexpired Senate term of the late W. Kerr Scott. Because Jordan was known to have turned down a previous Senate seat, a number of his colleagues were surprised that he accepted this offer. He was then elected to the seat that November. Hodges was also rumored to have appointed Jordan on condition that he would relinquish the seat so that the governor himself could run for the Senate in 1960.
The new senator moved into Washington with considerable ease and was considered an insider almost immediately. He served on the agricultural and forestry and the public works committees, and he chaired the Public Works Subcommittee on Flood Control and Rivers and Harbors, seeing to it that considerable funds reached North Carolina. He also chaired the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which made him a much sought-after senator. He became a confidant of powerful politicians, and according to his biographer and his fellow senator from North Carolina, Sam Ervin, Jr. , this included the Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson.
Jordan was reelected to the Senate in 1960 and 1966. His lack of a clear voting pattern, however, continued to leave his constituency unsettled. Jordan was chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. He gained his greatest attention as a senator when the investigation of Bobby Baker fell to the Rules Committee. Baker, secretary to the Senate majority, was accused of extensive improper business dealings. He resigned his position on October 1963, and Jordan began public hearings in early 1964. Baker was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine counts, including income-tax evasion, larceny, fraud, and misappropriation of campaign funds. In January 1967, he was convicted on most counts, and he went to prison in January 1971. President Johnson, considered to have been Baker's mentor, was in the midst of a presidential campaign at the time of the hearings. Jordan received considerable criticism for having kept the linkage between the president and Baker out of the hearing room and the press. Jordan's biographer stated that after the affair was over, Johnson seemed to have dropped Jordan as a friend. From time to time, Jordan continued to bewilder his colleagues.
In the 1972 Democratic primary, Jordan lost to a Durham lawyer and three-term congressman, Nick Galifiankis. Friends surmised that he had begun campaigning too late and that his Vietnam vote may have lost him votes. Also, his health had begun to decline while his opponent was a considerably younger man. Jordan's successor, Jesse Helms, claimed that if Jordan had won the primary, he would not have run. Jordan's health continued to decline, and he died in Saxapahaw, North Carolina.
Benjamin Everett Jordan was a suсcessful businessman, secretary-treasurer of the National Processing Company in Burlington, and director of the Cotton Textile Institute and of the North Carolina Cotton Manufacturers Association. Just as he had made a reputation as an accomplished and practical businessman and party operative, he became an accomplished and practical legislator. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, he was famous for the investigation of Senate aide Bobby Baker in 1964. Besides, he sponsored the Cotton Allotment Transfer Act, which assisted farmers with small allotments. Jordan also supported the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, that damaged his political position. B. Everett Jordan Lake, in Chatham County, North Carolina, is named for Senator Jordan, as well as the elementary school in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, B. Everett Jordan Elementary School.
A devout Methodist like his father, he was an adult Bible instructor (1927-1958), chairman of the Methodist Board of Stewards (1930-1950), and vice-president of the Board of Methodist Colleges (1952-1956).
Jordan became active in state Democratic politics in the mid-1930s. He did not seek the limelight, preferring to do his work behind closed doors.
Jordan voted for Alaskan statehood in 1958, which was not a popular move in the South since it was sure to guarantee an increase in pro-civil rights votes. When he voted for Hawaiian statehood the following year, more southerners joined him. In 1962, for example, he voted for President Kennedy's trade bill that reduced tariffs, an unpopular move within the textile industry.
Having long supported American military activity in Vietnam, in June 1970 Jordan voted for the Cooper-Church amendment calling for immediate cessation of military activity. His close associates realized how hard this reversal must have been for him, for he was noted for never admitting he was wrong on any matter. Tied up with his activities in the Senate, Jordan may have neglected the fact that he was losing touch with his constituency.
In his active involvement in agricultural affairs, he supported the tobacco industry in spite of declaring that he was loath to do so.
Because his family had moved so much when he was a child, he had learned to make friends fast.
According to his biographer, a long-time employee, his peers regarded him as an exceptional salesman. Although his product was not of the best quality available, he was able to convince prospective buyers that it was the best available for the price. He worked closely with clients, tailoring his products to their requirements. They recognized him to be skillfull at negotiating contracts as well being reliable and honest.
On November 29, 1924, Jordan married Katherine Augusta McLean; they had three children.
