November 13, 2026
Yannick Peterhans/USA Today via Reuters Connect
Clarence B. Jones, pictured above in 2023, smuggled out what would become 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' when Martin Luther King Jr. was incarcerated.
A short film honoring Clarence B. Jones, the Philly native and lawyer to Martin Luther King Jr. who helped write his "I Have a Dream" speech, is coming to Netflix next month.
Co-directed by NBA star Steph Curry, "The Baddest Speechwriter of All" was shot before Jones' death in May at the age of 95. Over the course of his long life, Jones played a hand in several seismic historical events. As legal counsel to King, he met with the civil rights leader while he was incarcerated in Alabama in 1963, smuggling out the scraps of paper that would become "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Later that same year, he helped pen the well-known "I Have a Dream" speech that King delivered at the March on Washington. Jones copyrighted the text to ensure any licensing fees went to the King estate.
When the Montgomery, Alabama, police commissioner sued four Black ministers for defamation over a critical newspaper ad they had placed, Jones represented them in court. The case resulted in the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan ruling, which held that public officials could not win damages for libel absent proof of actual malice. Jones continued making history after King's 1968 assassination by becoming the first Black partner in a Wall Street brokerage firm on the New York Stock Exchange and serving as an official observer to the Attica prison riot. During negotiations, he tried to dissuade New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller from sending the National Guard and state police into the prison to crush the rebellion. Ultimately unsuccessful, Jones later led an investigation into the deadly 1971 uprising.
He was also, at various points, the publisher and co-owner of the New York Amsterdam News and scholar-in-residence at Stanford University. President Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
While this storied career took Jones all over the country, his early life was based in the Philly region. Born in the city, he attended boarding school in Bucks County and Palmyra High School after his family relocated to South Jersey. He was drafted by the U.S. Army upon graduation from Columbia College and sent to Fort Dix. His refusal to sign a loyalty oath, however, resulted in an "undesirable" discharge 21 months later. With the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union, Jones successfully appealed and won an honorable discharge in court.
Check out the trailer for "The Baddest Speechwriter of All," streaming Dec. 8, below:
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