Everything Dr. Clarence B. Jones said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
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…”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
Jones informed MLK of W.E.B. Du Bois's death at the March
“And what I wrote on the program was that we were told that Dr. W. E. Du Bois had died that night before in Ghana at the age of 90 years of age. And so, I wrote to Martin on the program. Just got word from the Dr. Du Bois died in Ghana. Maybe the people at the …”
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…”
Jones: Relentless FBI persecution took a profound toll on MLK
“They did everything to destroy him. And it had an effect, it had a profound effect on him.”
Jones committed to MLK's movement immediately after hearing his sermon
“I pulled him to me very closely, and I leaned over to him, and I said, Dr. King, when do you want me to go to Montgomery, Alabama? And that's what I call the making of a disciple.”
Jones: I was the only person allowed to visit MLK in Birmingham Jail
“Now, I was the only person who could go in to see Martin when he was in jail in Birmingham.”
Jones: RFK's reaction to MLK's death transformed my opinion of him
“Now, I, Had been one of the fiercest critics of Robert Kennedy up until that day. And when somebody told me and described to me that he sobbed and put his sob, I said, Clarence, there's something about Robert Kennedy you don't know, and you gotta find out more…”
Jones: MLK was indicted for tax evasion in 1960
“Dr. King was Dr. King was indicted by the state of Alabama in 1960 for tax evasion, and he had four superb lawyers.”
Jones initially intended to refuse working with Martin Luther King Jr.
“Oh, no, I wasn't going to do it. No, I wasn't going to do it.”
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