James Edward Jordan (1888-1977) was born in Wrightsville, Georgia, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1919. His career as an African American businessman in Atlanta included beauty and barber-supply sales, tailoring, clothing sales, real estate, photography, and motion picture production. He owned and ran the Jordan Shop of Quality, maintained a tailor shop in the Odds Fellow Building and purchased the Pioneer Mercantile Company. In 1947, Jordan opened a photography studio at 268 Auburn Avenue, which he operated until the late 1960s. During much of this period, Auburn Avenue, known as "Sweet Auburn", was the central business and cultural street for Atlanta's African American community. His real estate holdings included several homes in Atlanta; he also owned properties in New York City. Jordan's businesses were family operated enterprises.

Jordan married Anna Hobbs in Wrightsville, Georgia, and the couple had seven children: James, Narvie, Harvey, Edward, Anna Pearl, Robert, and Juanita. Each worked for some point in the Jordan businesses. Jordan also placed a great deal of emphasis on education, funding several scholarships for students to attend Booker T. Washington High School in the early 1930s.