CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Clarence B. Jones, a former speechwriter and confidante of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who helped pen his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, has died. He was 95.
Jones died Friday at a senior living community in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Cupertino, according to a statement released by the family, who was at his side.
“Our father lived a life of conscience,” the Jones' family said Tuesday. “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 Birmingham Jail” out of his cell and writing many up until the assassination of the civil rights icon in 1968.
He helped craft King's 1967 “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” address given at Riverside Church in New York exactly a year before King's death. It was considered a hallmark speech for King's condemnation of the Vietnam War and U.S. militarism in general. He argued that the U.S.'s participation in the war exacerbated poverty across the country.
Born on Jan. 8, 1931 in Philadelphia, Jones had parents who were domestic workers for a wealthy Quaker family several miles away in New Jersey, according to the Clarence B. Jones Institute for Social Advocacy. Jones was class valedictorian of an integrated high school in Palmyra, New Jersey. His knack for speechwriting became apparent in 1949, when he gave a graduation speech about breaking down racial barriers.
Jones went on to graduate from Columbia University in New York. He then was drafted by the U.S. Army but was honorably discharged almost two years later. He went on to earn a law degree from Boston University.
In 1960, in what would be the start of a seminal friendship, Jones was approached by King to be on his legal team in a tax evasion case brought by the state of Alabama. Jones pivoted from a career in entertainment law in California and moved his family to New York City. There he could be closer to King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and serve as a full-time adviser, attorney and speechwriter for him.
He was a member of the legal team on the 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan. The nation's highest court overturned a libel case against the newspaper, which had run an ad condemning police treatment of civil rights demonstrators in Montgomery, Alabama.
After King's death, Jones went on to work for a Wall Street investment banking firm and became the first Black American with the designation of allied member of the New York Stock Exchange.
He later ventured into academia. In 2012, he joined the faculty at the University of San Francisco where he taught law students as well as undergraduates in courses such as “From Slavery to Obama.” In 2018, he co-founded the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice at the school. Around the same time, he also became a scholar-in-residence at Stanford University's Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute.
Jones published a book about those years with King in 2023 titled “Last of the Lions: An African American Journey in Memoir.”
The following year he received the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from then-President Joe Biden. A few weeks later, a tearful Jones appeared at a San Francisco Giants baseball game with Golden State Warriors basketball star Stephen Curry to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Curry has produced and co-directed a short documentary on Jones.
“The Baddest Speechwriter of All” won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will stream on Netflix later this year.
Jones is survived by his five children and longtime partner Lin Walters.
Plans for funeral services and a public celebration of life are still being finalized.
FILE - Dr. Clarence B. Jones, right, a former speech writer for Martin Luther King Jr., wipes his eyes next to Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry after Jones threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees in San Francisco, May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Austin McCormack, left, co-chairman of the Goldman Citizens Committee appointed to investigate the Attica prison riot, stands next to Dr. Clarence B. Jones, editor and publisher of the Amsterdam News as they hold a news conference, Sept. 17, 1971, shortly after their arrival at the upstate New York prison. (AP Photo/Bob Schutz)
FILE - Dr. Clarence B. Jones, left, a former speech writer for Martin Luther King Jr., stands next to Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, front right, during the playing of Lift Every Voice and Sing before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees in San Francisco, May 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
PLANO, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, easily defeating four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the latest contest where President Donald Trump sought to oust an incumbent he saw as not sufficiently loyal.
Trump endorsed Paxton last week. Paxton's victory in Tuesday’s runoff makes Cornyn the first Republican senator from Texas to lose the party’s nomination for reelection.
Cheers rang through the ballroom at Paxton's election night party when the race was called, as Van Halen’s “Jump” played and the stage filled with supporters holding Paxton campaign signs.
At Cornyn's watch party, the room went quiet. Cornyn moments later stood before reporters and said he will support Paxton in the general election.
“Tonight we’ve come up short,” Cornyn said. “A few years ago, I had a friend of mine say, ‘You know what makes God laugh?’ He said, ‘When we make plans.’”
“I’ve always supported the Republican ticket,” he said, “and I intend to do so again.”
Trump endorsed Paxton last week, calling him a “true MAGA warrior.” Cornyn said in 2023 as Trump was running to return to the White House that his time “has passed him by."
His loss followed defeats of incumbents in Louisiana, Indiana and Kentucky, all to Trump-backed challengers.
Cornyn’s campaign and allied groups spent roughly $109 million on advertising for the March 3 primary and Tuesday's runoff. He had the backing of Senate GOP leaders who said he would be the stronger general election candidate.
Paxton will run against state Rep. James Talarico in November.
Tuesday's runoffs also will decide Democratic U.S. House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats, and a San Antonio-area seat the party wants to flip.
Cornyn led Paxton in the March primary but failed to win a majority. That was after Cornyn and his supporters waged a monthslong ad campaign, mostly attacking Paxton over ethical and personal questions. The two-term attorney general was acquitted on corruption charges in a 2023 impeachment trial, where allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced. Paxton’s wife filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”
The alliance of pro-Cornyn groups has continued its attack, outspending Paxton's campaign and two allied super PACs $16.5 million to $5.9 million since March 3, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Trump promised to endorse immediately after the primary but didn’t act until after early voting began last week.
“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to win,” Trump wrote in a social media post endorsing him.
David Jacobson, a retired 70-year-old Dallas-area resident, said Trump's endorsement was a factor in his decision to back Paxton on Tuesday. While Cornyn has for the most part been a strong Trump supporter, Jacobson generally thinks most politicians have remained in office too long.
“Maybe it’s time for a change,” he said after voting near Dallas.
Linda Williams said she voted for Cornyn, calling him “the lesser of two evils.” She thinks Cornyn has a better chance to beat Talarico this fall.
“Because Paxton is a crook," Williams said after voting in Plano, outside Dallas.
Trump, in his endorsement, poked at Cornyn, saying he “was not supportive of me when times were tough” and that “John was very late in backing me.”
Cornyn suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.” He also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.
Cornyn said Tuesday on Fox News Radio's “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that the president's ire was misplaced. There are “grifters," he said, "claiming that I am opposed to the president's agenda, and I think that’s caused some confusion with the president himself. But I’ve been supportive.”
Some GOP strategists have argued that a Paxton nomination would cost millions of dollars more to promote in the fall, when money could be spent defending Republican seats in more competitive states. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority. Cornyn has the support of Senate GOP leaders.
Newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee defeated veteran Rep. Al Green in Texas' 18th District, dispatching a longtime House incumbent who was one of Trump's most outspoken critics. The Republican-led Texas Legislature redrew the district when it approved a new House map last year. The new map led to a runoff between incumbents and marks the end of a dizzying series of elections in the Houston area.
Former Rep. Colin Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson are competing in the Dallas-area 33rd District. Johnson was elected to the seat in 2024, the year Allred lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred was running for Senate again this cycle but dropped his bid and instead is looking to return to the House.
Near San Antonio, Democratic leaders are trying to prevent Maureen Galindo, who has expressed antisemitic views, from winning the party's runoff with Johnny Garcia. While Texas lawmakers redrew the 35th District to help Republicans, Democrats view it as within reach and don't want Galindo's past comments to impede them.
This story has been corrected to show that voter David Jacobson is 70, not 71.
Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle contributed from Sasche, Texas.
A workers prepares a podium during a primary runoff election night event for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Plano, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Attendees mingle during a primary runoff election night event for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Plano, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Mike Neal, right, 45, a canvasser for Dallas county clerk candidate Damarcus Offord, Jermaca Brown, center, 32, deputy campaign manager for Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, and Sam Dalton, left, 31, a volunteer with Stonewall Democrats, stand outside the Oak Lawn Branch Library during local and primary runoff elections Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)
Candidate signs line the entrance to a polling location as voters cast ballots in local and primary runoff elections Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)
Candidate signs line the entrance to a polling location ahead of local and primary runoff elections on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks to supporters at a campaign event in McKinney, Texas, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, listens to State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, during a campaign event in Lubbock, Texas, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Annie Rice)
