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Clarence B. Jones
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Clarence B. Jones is the former personal counsel, adviser, draft speech writer and close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is the Diversity Visiting Professor at the University of San Francisco, and Scholar Writer in Residence, MLK, Jr. Institute, Stanford University.

His personal, insider's account of the 1963 March On Washington, Behind The Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation, will be released January 2011 from Palgrave Macmillan.

Entries by Clarence B. Jones

Two Supreme Court Cases Take Aim at Civil Rights

(0) Comments | Posted June 17, 2013 | 7:00 PM

The nation awaits decisions by the Supreme Court that could undo much of the progress achieved during the last 50 years for civil and equal rights in our country. This will occur if the Court declares either the "pre-clearance" -- Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 --...

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Time for a Joint Session of Congress to Reconsider the Patriot Act

(2) Comments | Posted June 11, 2013 | 11:33 AM

The public disclosure about the extent to which our government has initiated programs "to protect us from terrorists attacks," has precipitated a media firestorm. Presumably, some of these efforts have in fact protected us. Others appear to have infringed upon our cherished concepts of constitutionally protected zones of privacy.

The...

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Remembering Four Little Girls

(3) Comments | Posted May 28, 2013 | 11:43 AM

With so many news stories competing for our attention: Congressional investigation of the IRS, the bloody attack of a British soldier by alleged Islamist militants in London, President Obama's redefinition of our "War on Terrorism," the penalty phase of the Jody Arias trial, the debate about a pending proposed Immigration...

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Time for Tough Love

(0) Comments | Posted May 20, 2013 | 11:09 AM

During the past few months I have been very concerned that the Second Amendment was being misused, and its historical application distorted, as an offensive shield against any effort to encourage and require only the smart and responsible ownership and use of guns in our nation. Thus, like an overwhelming...

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Breaking the Silence of Good People: Taking Action to Reduce Gun Violence

(6) Comments | Posted April 10, 2013 | 11:12 AM

Monday marked the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust. I was 12 years old when this horrific event occurred. During the ensuing years, like some other persons, I have had difficulty understanding why so many "good" people of Germany said they did not know at the time about Hitler's policy and...

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On the 45th Anniversary of Dr. King's Assassination, Guns Still Threaten American Society

(7) Comments | Posted April 4, 2013 | 8:00 AM

Forty-five years ago today, Robert F. Kennedy was in Gary, Indiana, as part of his participation in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries. As he was about to mount a flatbed truck to speak to an almost exclusively African-American audience, he received word that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,...

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Be Careful What You Pray For: President Obama's Recent Trip to Israel

(1) Comments | Posted March 25, 2013 | 5:29 PM

As I watched part of President Obama's speech in Israel to an audience of young people and students, I reflected back on the 2012 presidential election campaign in the United States.

Had Governor Mitt Romney won, could I envision him delivering a similar speech?

I also remembered the consistent pre-election...

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Are We There Yet?

(2) Comments | Posted March 5, 2013 | 10:38 AM

OK, Sequester Armageddon has occurred. And the sun continues to rise in the East and set in the West; clocks, watches, buses, trains and airplanes are still running throughout the nation. Congress, as usual, in the midst of an urgent domestic fiscal crisis works a short week, adjourning for the...

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President Obama's Inauguration and the Legacy of Dr. King

(59) Comments | Posted January 15, 2013 | 2:10 PM

In a previous blog I noted that the inauguration of President Obama's second term coincides with our national commemoration of the 84th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It also coincides with a national conversation about gun violence following the tragic events in Newtown, CT and the NRA's call...

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NRA's Gun Appreciation Day Scheduled on MLK Holiday? Say It Ain't So!

(110) Comments | Posted January 9, 2013 | 12:23 PM

This year the nation's commemoration of the 84th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr occurs during the week of the second inauguration of America's first African-American president, three weeks after the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and during the 50th Anniversary year of Dr. King's August 28th, 1963...

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American Gun Violence: A Social Disease

(11) Comments | Posted December 21, 2012 | 1:24 AM

"Obama to Give Congress Plan on Gun Control Within Weeks."

Senators and members of the House, previously opposed to any proposals to restrict the sale, resale and/or use of guns are now publicly speaking out. Several suggest that, in the wake of the massacre of 20 kids and six adults...

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Gun Violence: It's Not Just the NRA or Presidential Leadership -- It's Us

(72) Comments | Posted December 16, 2012 | 1:18 PM

Every time a horrific national tragedy occurs involving the killing of school children or adults by the use of guns, the National Rifle Association immediately becomes the national whipping boy and the source for causation blame. Repeated finger pointing of responsibility at the NRA for its fierce defense of individual...

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How Obama Got His Groove Back

(0) Comments | Posted December 7, 2012 | 9:40 AM

Unlike Stella Payne, in Terry McMillan's bestselling novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back, President Obama did not have to travel to Jamaica. His re-election on the basis of a clear national agenda has enabled him to get his "groove" back and exercise presidential leadership more boldly and decisively. Similarly,...

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From Slavery to Obama: 'Heed Their Rising Voices'

(1) Comments | Posted November 19, 2012 | 2:48 PM

In a college classroom earlier this week I witnessed the moral clarity of the so-called "Millennial Generation." The "MG" has been described as people born around the early 1980s and afterward, for whom technological savvy is the norm and constant communication the expectation.

The post election results of the...

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Election 2012: A Second Referendum on Race?

(14) Comments | Posted October 28, 2012 | 3:14 PM

This upcoming presidential election has been described as the most important election in a generation. Depending upon one's political point of view, the forecast for our nation is either bleak or full of promise and opportunity.

There is one issue, however, notwithstanding the paramount importance of the economy, that continues...

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Below the Election Radar: A Cure for African-American Juvenile Delinquency

(21) Comments | Posted October 17, 2012 | 5:12 PM

Like many other bloggers during the past several weeks, I have been preoccupied with the presidential election contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. An African-American person in the audience at the town hall debate at Hofstra University last night asked what the candidates were going to do to make...

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Obama's Biggest Challenge: Optics

(15) Comments | Posted October 13, 2012 | 8:59 AM

Sometimes optics and appearance triumph over substance. Except in a national election, when the state of the economy and the level of joblessness can color the optics with the grey of uncertainty.

Media pundits continue to concentrate on who "won" or "lost" the Biden-Ryan debate. Was Vice President Biden's "performance"...

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Rope-a-Dope Won't Work for Obama

(8) Comments | Posted October 4, 2012 | 12:49 PM

Watching the Obama-Romney debate last night reminded me of that terrible feeling on October 30th, 1974 while watching, eighth row ringside, the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman heavyweight boxing championship in Kinshasa, Zaire (now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

An avid Ali fan, I sat there with a sinking feeling in...

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The Legacy of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger and the Civil Rights Movement

(1) Comments | Posted September 30, 2012 | 5:13 PM

The recent death of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times, provoked memories of the Times and its coverage of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Last week I participated in the continuing Centennial Celebration of the University of San Francisco's Law School. In my speech...

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MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech: 49 Years Ago Today

(10) Comments | Posted August 28, 2012 | 9:39 AM

Forty-nine years ago today, August 28, 1963, a 34-year-old Baptist preacher from Georgia, stirred and summoned the conscience of our nation to share his "Dream." The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to an estimated 300,000 white and black Americans who had assembled at the foot of the Lincoln...

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