Dr. Clarence B. Jones, speechwriter and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recounts handing King a handwritten note on a program during the 1963 March on Washington upon learning of W.E.B. Du Bois's passing.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jones: The FBI would have bugged MLK's psychiatric sessions for J. Edgar Hoover
“Whether it's in 30 days, or 60 days, or 90 days, but within 30 to 60 days, every conversation that Martin is having with his psychiatrist is being transcribed. And within 60 days, the transcription of his sessions will be on the desk of J. Edgar Hoover. I'm ab…”
Opinion
Jones: MLK was brilliant, vulnerable, and sometimes personally irresponsible
“Martin King was, ah, the most brilliant, vulnerable, Sometimes personally irresponsible, brilliant person I'd ever met, you know.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jones: I told MLK early on I was not committed to nonviolence
“I let Dr. King know very armed in our relationship I was not nonviolent. No, no, no, no. No, I let him know I'm not nonviolent. I was not committed to nonviolence.”
Assertion Partly supported
Jones: MLK wrote 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' entirely from memory
“He didn't have any books. He didn't have anything. So I said to him, I said, listen, Martin, you'll get no credit for being able to quote scripture. You've got a PhD in theology. Most of the school is theology. You're supposed to be able to do that. But the du…”
Insight
Jones: MLK's 'content of character' principle remains the primary template
“I want my four children to be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. That, to me, is still, that's the template That still remains a template.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jones: Civil rights leaders ignored wealth because they expected to die young
“I never, the concept of money and wealth didn't mean anything. And one of the reasons it didn't mean anything, because I never contemplated that I would, I never believed I would live beyond the age of 50. None of us ever believed me. I never believed that Mar…”