Clarence B Jones, who helped MLK write ‘I have a dream’ speech, dies at 95

Associated Press

Clarence B Jones, a former speechwriter and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr who helped pen his famous “I have a dream” speech, has died. He was 95.

Jones died on Friday at a senior living community in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Cupertino, according to a statement released by family members, who were at his side.

“Our father lived a life of conscience,” the Jones family said. “He believed, until his final days, that an idea [is] more powerful than the march of any army. We are grateful beyond words for the love, the prayers, and the friendships that sustained him, and us, across this long and remarkable life.”

As King’s personal attorney, Jones was heavily involved in some of the key moments of the civil rights movement. He is credited with smuggling pages of King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail out of his cell and writing until King’s assassination in 1968.

He helped craft King’s 1967 Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence address given at Riverside church in New York City exactly a year before King’s death. It was considered a hallmark speech for King’s condemnation of the Vietnam war and US militarism in general. He argued that the US’s participation in the war exacerbated poverty across the country.

Learn about Jones’ life.

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