Dock Jackson Jordan was born on October 18, 1866, in Cuthbert, Georgia. The son of a formerly enslaved man, Jordan excelled in the realm of education, attending Allen University in South Carolina where he obtained a B.S. and law degree. He passed the bar in both South Carolina and Georgia but was drawn to influential positions in higher education and served as an administrator or professor at Morris Brown College (Atlanta), Edward Waters College (Jacksonville, Fla.), and Kittrell College (Kittrell, N.C.).

Jordan later took charge of the Teachers' Training Course and served as supervisor of the night school. He taught courses related to civics, literature and writing, Black history, the Reformation, German history, basic mathematics, the Revolutionary War, the U.S. Civil War, and Reconstruction. From 1918 to 1939, he was a professor and chair of the history department at what is now North Carolina Central University. He died on October 20, 1943, in Durham, North Carolina.