Dr. Clarence Jones served as legal advisor and speechwriter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here, he recounts smuggling paper in and out of Birmingham Jail following King's April 1963 arrest.
Insight
True political alliances enable honest mutual criticism without bad-faith accusations
“If I am a black person, totally committed to the, an alliance with the Jewish community, does not mean that I have lost my ability to criticize. Ok. But the difference is, you see, someone like me, I know it. When Jewish people hear me, if I say something, wel…”
Opinion
Jones: MLK's Birmingham Jail letter and anti-Vietnam speech are his best
“If I had to bookend Martin King's life, I'd bookend them with two things. The letter from the Birmingham jail, And the speech he gave opposing the war in Vietnam. Time to break the silence. Those are the two most powerful.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jones: MLK had unparalleled knowledge of the Jewish Talmud
“Was to me, the first and only, I haven't met a black preacher, ok, that had, as a commanding knowledge, Of the Talmud, as Dr. King had.”
Insight
Jones: Colorblindness is a myth; the real issue is attached prejudices
“There's no such thing as colorblind. You need to see color. Seeing color is the most beautiful thing in the world. It's what we attach to that color.”
Assertion Supported
Nelson and David Rockefeller provided $100,000 in cash for MLK's 1963 bail
“So I go into the Chase Bank, and there was Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of the state of New York... David Rockefeller was the president and CEO... Grab the bag of money, a 100,000 dollars... I signed this promissory note. It was a promising note on demand.…”
Insight
Jones used his Juilliard training to draft speeches matching MLK's cadence
“The advantage I had to Dr. King, that I could write Words, and I could hear how they would sound when he spoke them, because I had an ear that was attuned to what the words would sound like.”