Biography

Clarence B. Jones was born on January 8, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Jennifer Poznanski, Charlotte Schiff and Amy Norton. He died on May 22, 2026 in Cupertino, California, USA.

Friend and speech-writer for Martin Luther King Jr..

In 2018, he co-founded the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice.

In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Brought his experience to academia, teaching and mentoring students at both the University of San Francisco and Stanford University.

After attending Columbia University and earning a law degree from Boston University in the 1950s, he began his career in entertainment law before turning his focus on civil rights.

]on Martin Luther King at 'The March on Washington', August 28, 1963] If you listen to the speech carefully - and this is important as we reflect now fifty years back - if you listen to the syntax of his reference to the dream, he does not speak in the present tense. He speaks in the future tense. He's speaking in his hope and belief in America. 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character'. Future tense. Dr. King's speech was an affirmation of his prophetic belief that America had the capacity to be the best that it could be. The 'I Have a Dream' speech was a summons, a call, to the collective conscience of America, that we can be better than this. We can be better than this!