Dr. Clarence B. Jones, the longtime speechwriter and confidant of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will be the guest of honor at Westport’s 18th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.
Award-winning news anchor Craig Melvin will serve as the moderator for the conversation, with acclaimed novelist and King in the Wilderness producer Trey Ellis introducing Dr. Jones. Violin virtuoso Kersten Stevens will be performing to open the afternoon, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (New York) will be on hand to provide remarks.
The annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration is a partnership between the Library, TEAM Westport, the Westport Country Playhouse, and the Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy and Council.
The event will be livestreamed on the Library's YouTube channel.
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Dr. Jones served as legal counsel, strategic advisor, and draft speechwriter to King from 1960 until King’s assassination in 1968. He is credited with writing the first seven paragraphs of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, one of the most iconic and enduring addresses in American history.
Dr. Jones was an integral member of the Civil Rights movement, one of the few privy to King’s decision-making processes and who shared in his political struggles. According to Jones’ official bio, Vanity Fair called him the man who kept King’s secrets. In addition, Jones engaged with many of the leaders of the Black liberation movement, serving as a liaison between King and Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Robert F. Kennedy, among others.
Across the decades, Dr. Jones has worked to carry on King’s legacy. As a lawyer, civil rights leader, and business executive, he has maintained close personal friendships and collaborative working relationships with influential 20th century artists, writers, athletes, and social justice activists, including Muhammed Ali, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee, and Lorraine Hansberry. In 1974, Jones negotiated the historic “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match in Kinshasa, Zaire, between Ali and George Foreman.
Dr. Jones currently serves as the chairman of the Spill the Honey Foundation, that utilizes the transformative power of the arts and brings together the historic and contemporary voices of the Black-Jewish alliance to achieve social justice non-violently. He also founded the Dr. Clarence B. Jones Institute for Social Advocacy, serves as the founding director emeritus of the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco, and has served on the boards of cultural organizations, including The Impact Repertory Theater & Dance Company, The Theatre Development Fund NYC, and the Roosevelt Institute.
Dr. Jones was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of San Francisco and honored at events at Columbia University, where he was an undergraduate, and the Julliard School of Performing Arts, where he studied music. He graduated from Boston University Law School, where he was honored as the recipient of the Silver Shingle Award for his public service.
In 2021, Dr. Jones received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, the highest recognition given by the ABA.
Dr. Jones has authored two acclaimed books, What Would Martin Say? and Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation, and countless articles and essays for The Huffington Post and many other publications. His newest book, Last of the Lions, was released in August 2023 by Red Hawk Publications/UNC Press.
Past Martin Luther King Jr. celebration keynote speakers include National Book Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Ibram X. Kendi, Pulitzer Prize winner James Forman Jr., New York Times best-selling authors Heather McGhee and Layla Saad, Guggenheim Scholar Carol Anderson, American Book Award winner Tricia Rose, Quinnipiac Law School founder Marilyn Ford, and last year’s guest: author, artist, filmmaker, and multi-dimensional performance artist Junauda Petrus.
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Melvin is a news anchor on NBC News’ TODAY, co-host of 3rd Hour of TODAY, and a host of syndicated Dateline NBC broadcasts.
The Westport resident has covered a wide range of news events in his decorated career, including several Republican and Democratic National Conventions and three Presidential Inaugurations. His coverage of politics has included notable interviews with former President Bill Clinton, then-Vice President Joe Biden, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Secretaries of State John Kerry, Mike Pompeo, and Condoleezza Rice. In addition, he has covered four Olympic Games and six Super Bowls.
Prior to joining NBC News and MSNBC in 2011, Melvin was a weekend anchor for WRC, NBC’s owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C. Before that, he earned acclaim as an evening news anchor at WIS in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
Ellis is an American Book Award-winning novelist, two-time Emmy and Peabody winning filmmaker, NAACP Image award-winning playwright, essayist and professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. His acclaimed first novel, Platitudes, was reissued by Northeastern University Press along with his influential essay, “The New Black Aesthetic.”
King in the Wilderness, a 2018 HBO documentary, won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary.
Stevens is a six-time winner of the historic Amateur Night and Showtime at The Apollo. All About Jazz has lauded “Stevens’ immense creativity and elegant flair” and she has received plaudits from a host of publications and performers including The Black Gospel Blog and renowned jazz violinist Regina Carter.
A native of Stratford, Connecticut, Stevens graduated from Yale University before establishing herself as the “queen of the violin.” She has performed with music greats Carter, Kim Burrell, and international jazz bassist Christian McBride, and she has performed for President Barack Obama, Ray Charles, and Denzel Washington, among others.
Blumenthal has been a longtime supporter of the Library, appearing in the Trefz Forum just last year to celebrate the release of Verso Records, Volume One. The five-term Connecticut attorney general (1991-2011) was elected as U.S. senator in November 2010, seated in January 2011, and is currently serving his third term in the chamber.
In 2013, at the age of 25, Torres became New York City’s youngest elected official and the first openly LGBTQ person elected to office in the Bronx. He has served in the U.S. House of Representative, representing the Bronx, since January 2021.
