A Juilliard-MLK Connection

Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Lecture Series Features Clarence B. Jones

This week, Juilliard welcomes for an extended visit a former student with an outsize historical role.

More than five decades ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, essentially for his nonviolent protests to racial laws. A newspaper criticizing King and his allies (and fellow prisoners) was smuggled in, and King, incensed, began responding in the margins of the newspaper and on other scraps of paper. He gave those scraps to one of his lawyers, Clarence B. Jones; those messages were later published as King’s iconic “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Jones would later help organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest Civil Rights protests in history, and helped King write his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Jones had been a successful entertainment lawyer and stockbroker before being asked to join King's legal team, in 1960. He also quickly became the civil rights leader’s trusted friend and ally as well as helping him draft speeches.

Jones grew up in Philadelphia and studied clarinet at Juilliard’s summer high school program before getting his bachelor’s degree at Columbia University. This week, he returns to Juilliard for a series of events including giving the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture about his experiences and how his training at Juilliard helped him with speechwriting, meeting with students, and attending performances. The culminating event of the week was his being awarded a President’s Medal for his service to the nation and the cause of civil rights.