YouSaid · the spoken record

Clarence Jones

lines on the record: 55
first: 2025-02-01
most recent: 2025-02-01
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And there was no Need to go, oh, you're white, so like you got to work your way or you're black so like you're less than me or like none of that actually existed. You guys had a common purpose you were working for a common goal and you took the time to know each other And that's the model. And it's so crazy how politicized it still gets and how we always want to be in a race war for whatever. I know for some reason so bizarre.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's always why we've done it. But it's work. But with massive reward. And to me, reading behind the dream, the thing that struck me most was the culture of the civil rights movement, be it you, Stanley Levinson. Nelson Rockefeller Martin King. You guys all judge each other on who you were.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think that that's the thing. You know, we talk about this at the firm a lot. It's an effort, particularly if the person doesn't have your background, isn't from your culture and so forth. And I think that”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, as you were talking, I was thinking the part that people don't realize is that judging somebody by the content of their character takes work because you have to understand their character. And your story about Bobby Sr. Where it took you a while and an effort to understand his character before.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do I have to write five pages to describe the audience that I see? Do I have to go and say, well, I was at this thing on Jesus and Horace, I saw, do I have to go and write five pages to describe the experience I'm having here and looking at this audience? Do I have to do that? Ray Sip Solarco, the thing speaks for itself, unfortunately. As I said, you and Ben. You have seen and lived and done experience in your lifetime. That's a template. Somebody says to you, Ben Harwis, how did you get into bed? Did you want to get involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion? Did you do that purposely? And by the way, when you met that beautiful woman who's your wife, she's not white, I noticed.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Flipping. The audience here is all black. What is it? What is it about this thing? Martin King was so brilliant. I want my four children to be judged by the content of the character and not by the color of their skin. That, to me, is still. That's the template. That still remains a template. I mean, I read all the books. I mean, I taught, I'm retired six years ago. I taught in law school. I lectured at the graduate school here at Stanford. I lectured and so forth and so forth. This would always come up. And now today I'm being invited to speak at very distinguished universities, and they want the DO. with diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I say, when you see it, you can believe it. When you see it, when I leave here,”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What is being prohibited? What is being fought against? And those people who are proposing diversity, equity, and inclusion, I challenge you. What are you proposing? Are you not accepting what you're with? 2025? Clearly, I think it's fair to say 2025. With respect to the position of black people in America 2025 is different than it was 30 years ago, fifty years ago. Is a simple historical fact How much that difference is? I don't know But we've got to Out of this thing we seem to be trapped in. Somehow DEI diversity, equity, and inclusion is a bad thing if the people who have the power. Make a judgment. I think in a workforce, I think if I'm running a company. I'd like to see whether or not. There are potential pools of talent in people out there other than those who look like me. Let's just say the audience here is all white.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that the issue confronting all of us is not that your color is irrelevant. You goddamn right. Yeah, I'm dark brown and you see me as dark brown. That is a reality. Someone who is white, I see them as white. That is reality. But what today? In 2025, what kind of values do we attach to that reality? Automatic A white person wakes up today in America. Is that white person presumptively Until proven to the contrary, a racist? There are books that make that the thesis. I'm a former trial lawyer, so I look at things more pragmatic. We are challenged. This will eat us to death. This issue is. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. Looked at the television. I mean, does Donald Trump really know what he's banning when he says diversity equity inclusion? No more diversity, equity inclusion in the armed forces. No more diversity inclusion. Okay.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“300 plus or more years of the institution of slavery. Is totally irrelevant. has had no going forward consequences. On those people who are successes to slave owners? And those people who are successors, the slaves, when will we arrive at a point? When white people sitting out there, you had nothing to do with slavery. That's the fact. And black and brown people sitting out there. You had nothing to do with ancestors who looked like you having formerly been slaves. Power, Frederick Douglass said, conceives nothing without a demand. It never has and never will. I think it's a meaningless exercise. Try to speculate about this projected new society The color of your skin is irrelevant.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very good concept Whole books being written. And the thesis that if you go behind some of the books talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, If you really go and analyze them very analytically, You come away with the conclusion that. No matter how much a society will try. White people are going to be irredeemable. And I don't believe that. I believe just the opposite I believe The way you get people. Talking, thinking comfortably about race. Comfortable and acknowledging what the historical facts are or were. Nobody in this room had anything to do with the institution of slavery. None of us. The institution of slavery had profound consequences going forward in our country. The question is At what point have we as a society arrived at what point have we arrived? Where the institutional consequences”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I look at the concept of diversity, equity, inclusion, and the history of the legacy of Martin King based on one word. Now, I don't know when the challenge of the words that I want my four children. To be judged not by the color of the skin, but by the content of their character. I don't know how we transition from that simple concept.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think about diversity, equity, and inclusion. I didn't realize that those words suddenly seem like bad words. I don't know.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I noticed something in the last four years, people are starting to look at Dr. King, not from his era, but from our era. And so now you have these new movements like the anti-racism movement and so forth. And they're going, well, Colorblind, okay, but we really have to see color well, integration okay, but, you know, we're gonna have a separate black graduation at Stanford and that kind of thing. So it's kind of like, well, maybe like he's not perfect on that. And then the thing that really made me sit down was President Trump was. Inaugurated on Martin Luther King Day and was effusive in his praise. And it was really a lot directed at the new movement. And so now sitting here. How do you think about on the spectrum of Ibram Kendi anti-racism to we shouldn't have affirmative action?”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know, I mean, he connected two civilizations that had grown up for 10,000 years, never met each other. So it was a big deal. He created the world that we live in now. And then I went to Martin Luther King Jr. High School. Oh, really? Yeah. Yes. But through my lifetime, people stopped viewing Christopher Columbus from. Kind of the era he came from and started to judge him from the era that we live in. And at the same time, Martin Luther King became the biggest American hero, really bigger than Abraham Lincoln or George Washington or any of them with the Stevie Wonders song. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, Reagan made the holiday. It was amazing. And as you said, you listen to speech, it's like, yeah, obviously he's our biggest hero.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Had an interesting conversation about this. I think it's actually very relevant as it relates to Dr. King. So it's interesting. I went to Christopher Columbus Elementary School and at the time I went, Columbus was a big hero.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Martin Luther King Jr. has been assassinated. And the crowd is like stunned. Without parsing, he says, I had a Of my family Was also a assassinator. We don't have all of the details yet. And he goes on and he starts quoting some things and so beautiful speech. And then a friend of mine who was a treasury agent who was assigned to guard Robert Kennedy after he gave this speech tells me that Robert Kennedy sits down It puts his head in his arms and he sobs. And he says, my God, my God. What is our country coming to? Now Had been one of the fiercest critics Of Robert Kennedy Until that When somebody told me. And described to me. That he sobbed. I said, Clarence Something about Robert Kennedy, you don't know. You got to find out more. That's when I changed my whole opinion about Robert Kennedy.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And by the way, as I'm thinking as I'm coming over here, you know, I was with the Attorney General. To tell you one, Robert Kennedy, the Robert Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy. I had the most fierce We were always at loggerheads, always at loggerheads. And then Martin King gets assassinated. April 4th, 196 Robert Kenner is running for president. And he sent Gary, Indeander. And he gets the word. Martin King has been assassinated. And his handlers are telling him you got to cancel this. You can't go and speak to this all black group. They don't know that Martin King's business, we got to get you out of here Quickly as possible. You've got to cancel this. Robert Kennedy says no. I'm not going to do Robert Kennedy Speaks to an all black audience. Gary And he says, Ladies and gentlemen, Brothers and sisters I have some very sad news for you.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right, okay. But in all seriousness. Race, if so, local, the thing speaks for itself, the thing. Speak for I don't know what notices went out about this. I suppose if I got something from Ben Horvis, I would come. But aside from I always assume that people have alternatives. As powerful as Jesus Ho is his, you may say, well, I'm busy today. I can't do that. I don't know what notice they sent out. I got Clarence. I don't know. You may say, well, I'd like to come, but I'm busy today. I can't do that. I look around and I see all these people, and I say, damn, you must have been busy, but she sure came out. And I know you came out of curiosity to see this crazy person me. Really came out. A tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and to Andreessen Horowitz. And this is a bad dude here. This is a bad group.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I'm just saying, I got a long memory. I forget some things, and I don't mean to embarrass you, but I just state what the facts are. As I think race, if so, locals, a thing speaks for itself. I am so touched and honored. As I look around, I think, I know, I see all these people out here. I know Andreessen Harwis. I mean, you're in the business of making money, right? That's what you do, right? I don't want to put you on the spot. I know you. I know that's what you do. Okay. In fact, Ben, you know what? Maybe I should get my series A. Maybe I should. You think I'm too old to come? They come too old to qualify. Could I come and work here”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The other would be the time to break the silence. Now, let me just say something. You don't have to do this. When I say you, I mean, Jason Horowitz, I'm speaking, that's what I'm saying. I'm not speaking personally. I mean, I am speaking personally. First of all, I got to say something publicly. I don't know what kind of stuff you got going down, brother. I don't know what you did or what to look at. I mean, look at that woman over there. No, I thought I had some bad stuff going on all my life. Man, I don't know what kind of stuff you got going on because damn, woo,”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He didn't have any books. He didn't have anything. So I said to him, I said, listen, Martin, you get no credit for being able to croak scripture. You got a PhD in theology at Bosnia School of Theology. You're supposed to be able to do that. But the dude would be quoting Thoreau. The dude would be quoting angles. The dude would be quoting for verbatim. I was there. He didn't have anything to look at. He did this out of his head. And so when I read that letter from the Birmingham Jail, I said to myself, that is one smart dude. So, as I said, if I had to book on what he had to book on his life.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Six weeks later, I'm in Atlanta, Georgia sitting outside Martin's office. Martin isn't there, but the Secretary Dorn McDonald's. Clarence, I'm so glad you're here because the magazine Christianity in Crisis, they want to publish Martin's letter from the Birmingham Jail. I said, well, I never saw it. I never read it. So she says, over to her, she says, well, we have a million gap copy. So I go and I read the copy. And I go and reread the Mimiograph copy. The letter from the Birmingham Chair, and I sit down and I read the letter, and I said, Oh my God. Because I knew the circumstances in which he had written this letter.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I went in to see him, he was responding to a full page ad that had been taken out in the Birmingham jail. He was really upset about it. And he said he wanted to write an answer to that. So I would bring blank sheets of paper under my jacket, a suit jacket, paper. And I came to see him twice a day. And I did that for a period of five days. Me 20th until five, six days later. That was a letter from the Birmingham Jail. I didn't pay any attention to the letter.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the other would be time to break the silence. The speech of Posing of War in Vietnam. Now, in the letter from the Birmingham Jail. He was in jail And I go in to see him. And when I go in to see him, I said, you know, Harry Belofoni and I said, we got to raise some bail money. And Martin wouldn't hear it. He says, well, you and Harry have to deal with. I said, Martin, pay attention to me. We got to raise some bail money because when I come in to see you, I'm running like the gauntlet. Now, I was the only person who could go in to see Martin when he was in jail in Birmingham. And so what I did, and at that time, I'd wear a suit and shirt and tie. Obviously, the only person going in and see him. So they didn't pat me down or anything. They just, okay, attorney, you should go and see him. And what I did”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And did some stupid, foolish things. You're not here to hear me. I mean, you are here to talk to this 94 year old crazy fool. I got that. You're here because of my relationship to Martin Luther King. If I live a thousand lifetimes, a thousand lifetimes. Nobody was fearless. We were talking about the march from Selma to Montgom I never will forget Some of them Montgomery, and he's speaking the capital that's right across the street. Somebody says to him, Dr. King, how long? How long? And Dr. King says, not long, not long. Then he goes off the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. How long? Not long. And he started quoting and quoting and quoting and quot If I had to bookend Martin King's life, I would bookend them by two speeches of documents The letter from the Birmingham Jail would be one bookend.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not going to happen. He says, I'm going to take you to the New York bar. I said, I don't care where you take me. He's not gone. I'm not going to permit, I will prevent anything possible. So Arthur says, well, why are you so admirant on this? I said, let me tell you, Arthur, let me bring you, you're in the medical world. Well, let me bring you to the real world I live in. I said, whether it's in 30 days or 60 days or 90 days. But within 30 to 60 days. Every conversation that Martin is having with his psychiatrist is being transcribed. And within 60 days, the transcription of his sessions will be on the desk of J-Edgoo. I'm absolutely convinced of that. And I can't take that risk. And Arthur Logan was so angry at me. He was going to take me to the bar. I said, I don't give a damn what you do. And he was. He was in bad shape.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They did everything Did everything to destroy him? And it had a profound effect on him. It had such a profound effect on him. I had to go see his personal physician with a fellow by the name of Stanley Levison, first a physician. He says, Clarence, Martin needs to see a psychiatrist and needs to see a doctor. He needs to be hospitalized. Is in such bad shape. He needs to be hospitalized. I said, excuse me? He says, yeah, he's in such bad shape, I'm telling you. So I turn to, his name was Arthur Logan, who was his personal physician. And I look at Arthur Logan just like I'm looking at you. I said, Martin, that's not going to be hospitalized. I thought Logan got very offended. Clarence, you're a good lawyer, but, you know, this is a medical doctor. I am telling you if he is not hospitalized, doesn't do this. I said no.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, no, no. What I'm trying to say is Concept the money and wealth didn't mean anything. One of the reasons it didn't mean anything because I never believed, never lived beyond the age of 50. None of us ever believed. I never believed that Martin Levin none of the 50. I just thought that's just the way it was. And I only changed. In the last six months a year with Martin. And I began to say this man is not crazy. He really does believe. Really believe that his Lord Jesus Christ, he deeply believes there's nothing I can do that on the Harry Bellaponi can do, nothing in his general can do. He really believed that he was protected by his Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I thought he was crazy. That's what he believed. And because of the depth of his belief It had a profound impact on me. Because I said, if somebody So fearless”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Martin came to say, don't you be talking to Burke Marshall and talking about Robert? You talk so bad about the Attorney General Clarence. You know, he's just a human being. You guys can't protect me. You got to understand. The way we used to get rid of the tension is that we would do mock funerals. We would do make-believe funerals if one of us got killed. Okay. So let's say they were doing a make believe funeral for me. Martin would Lord, no, come on now. We know he doesn't deserve it. I tried all my life to get him to stop drinking all those martinis. You know, when he came down south and saw the Jig and Jack Daniel say, I couldn't get him to stop. You know, he was a good man, Lord. Let him Let him in, Lord. Let him in. Because he did this and he did that. He was trying to externalize. We all believe.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I let him know I'm not nonviolent. I was not committed to non-violence. And people around him, like Andy Young, and people class, white man puts his hand on me. He's going down Don't you be talking this non violent stuff to me? I respect you. And I will defend you as long as you don't expect me to kick your butt in a minute. He says, Clarence. And he used to say to Dorothy Carton, we got to make sure that Clarence never is in a situation. He can embarrass us. Because he will embarrass us. And I believe that most of the time I was with them until the last year of his life. Something happened. Something happened to me. Because I began to look at him and I said, you know, this is me talking to myself. I said, this dude really believes it. He believes it.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that's right. Right, right. And he was very hard for me to say this, but let me just say this. Martin King was the most brilliant, vulnerable Sometimes personally irresponsible brilliant person I'd ever met. In fact, I let Dr. King know very hard in our relationship I was not non violent.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's amazing. Like being in a time machine talk to you. One of the things you wrote behind the dream that really struck me was it was a shame that the film of the March on Washington and I have the dream speech was in black and white. Because the feeling Was in color. It was the joy, the excitement. That was out of it. And it got me thinking when I think of Dr. King from the films and even the film Summit, he's like very serious, dour, the most serious person in the world. But then when you read what he writes, and I hear you talk, he sounds like the actual Dr. King was much different than that. What kind of person was he to be around?”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what I wrote on the program was that we were told that Dr. W. E. Du Bois had died that night before in Ghana at ninety years of age. So I wrote to Martin on a program. Just got worse. After Du Bois died in Ghana, maybe the people at the march should know this. And I wrote, and Martin Gotta, and he looked at it. And by the way, when A. Philip Randolph read this note, got the 250,000 people like, you know, because Dr. Du Bois. But when I saw that note, this is the point I want to make. When I saw that note, that photo of the note. I then begin to walk back the cat, as they say. I said, Oh my God. Dr. King took the March program home. On a Wednesday So he took the program note home. Goes to Atlanta. Has this personal effect And Caretta must have decided. This note exchanged between Martin and I was so important.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I went back and rolled back the cat, as they say. I said, Oh my god. This is the photostatic copy of the actual program That I wrote a note Martin King”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wouldn't go so far as to say that Stanford was trying to sell me. They just wanted me to see what the facilities looked like. Hennessy was very nice, and Stanford was like, I said, wow, it was a big place, you know. I didn't know anything about Stanford. Really? I didn't. And so I go over to the research center and they let me see some boxes of material. that they had collected on Dr. King trying to show me how authentic the Martin Luther King Research Service was if I wanted to come there and work. And they brought a box Then this box was a folder. I looked down in the folder and there was a photostatic copy. Of the program from the March on Washington. In the photostatic copy, it was a copy of a note I had written to Martin King. So I saw this Marshall on Washington program. I saw my note to Martin. And I burst into tears.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Want to take your time and write and set the record straight? He says, We have a Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Center out here. And I talked to one of my members of the Board of Trustees and a man met her name at Claiborne Carsons going to call you. And I said, okay. But Dr. Jones, I have to tell you humorously when I mention your name. The Claiborne Carson, he said, he knew of you, but he thought you were dead. So I said, Dr. Carson, no, he's very much a lie. I ended up coming to visit Stanford University 21 years ago. A good friend of mine is from Carl Dixon from Los Angeles. So I decided what I was going to do.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Horrorist comes from a legacy He should be very proud of. Like, oh, father and sons and grandsons, you know? People have different opinions, people have different journeys. I was being interviewed by Soledad O'Brien on television. 21 years ago And Solder. O'Brien and I got into something about Doc King would have said this. Dr. King would have said that. And I said, Solbrian, you know what you're talking about. Day after I got a call from a man who identified himself as John Hen John Hennessey says, Mr. Jones, I'm the president of Stanford University. He said, I saw you and a couple of other people saw you having Sulod, talking about some disputes. And you said you wanted to take the time. I said, I don't know where or what I'm going to do.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I just walked over to sometimes we Baptist preachers, I never measured your name, I never measured your name. I didn't say anything to him. I just walked over to him. I pulled him to me very closely. And I leaned over to him and I said, Dr. King. When do you want me to go to Montgomery, Alabama? That's what I call the making of a disci Let me just tell you something I've been here for 21 years. And I shared Knew less about Ben than I knew about his father. His grandfather. I came up in a generation where there were people who were liberal, many of them less just, some of them communists. And they were genuinely dedicated. The struggle to the aspirations. Negro Some of them were members of the Communist Party. They were all as white Jewish people. They were all fiercely involved. What we call the Negro struggle.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Dr. King made my mother the actor. Made her the person talking about me. And when he did that, I started to cry. I had this fish in my mind. She died in 19, whenever she died in 1950. I was very moved. And as I started to cry, I began to have visions of not only my mother, but my father, who was a domestic household servant. And then when he said he has forgotten, but once he came, that sort of hit me. And I really started to weep. I put on Dark Sunglasses so that the people in the church wouldn't see that I was really crying. As Dr. King recounted, my mother particularly. Church service is He's very popular So, as I'm getting myself together, I approached him. He sees me coming over. He says, Attorney Jones, I never mentioned your name. I never mentioned your name.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I had a chance to visit with this young man the other night at his home in Altina, California, and I said, Oh, no. I said, no, you know. I'm saying to myself. And then what Dr. King did was very unfair. Now, I told him things. The exchanger, they asked me. I told him things that I didn't think he was going to repeat to 1,500 strangers. And I told them things about my mother being in a maiden, a cook, my father, the chauffeur in the garden, all that, and so forth. And then there's an actual poem by Leichen Hughes. Life ain't been no crystal stair. And what doctor King did in his area tightness? Is that he Change the sequence and the words in that poem. The poem is about a Negro domestic. She's working in his house and she's scrubbing the staircase. And as she pauses periodically, she says, life ain't been no crystal stair.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Man, a young Tell me that this young man His brains have been touched by Jesus They tell me This young man. When he does legal research on any problem, he goes all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror. 1066 and the Magna Carta so I'm beginning to think now how the hell does Satan Baptist preacher know anything about this? And then my friends in New York and around the country tell me that when this young lawyer writes down what he finds. Words are so compelling. They just jump off the page at that point. I began to think when this church service is over, I'm going to find out who this young man is. The way Dr. King described him. If he is as Dr. King described, I'm a lawyer. I need to find out who this man that Dr. King is talking about. He goes all the way back and he says,”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I said here he goes to the most important powerful church in the black bourgeoisie. And so I said, this is a smart doom. Never heard him speak before. When I heard and saw him speak, I said, Oh my God. It was like Unbelievable. I never heard anybody speak like that. And he's going on and on and on and on. He comes to a point and he says, For example, there's a young man sitting in this church today.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We were something pregnant. She didn't want to come. In fact, we had an argument. She says, I'm not going, but you're going to that church. I said, okay, I don't make a big thing. Make a big thing, I'm gone. Now, I had never heard Dr. King speak before. Never, ever. I mean, I heard about him. And he gets up in the pulpit and he says. Ladies and gentlemen Brothers and sisters, the texts of my sermon today. role in responsibility. Of more educated. Among Us to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters who are struggling for freedom in the South. So I thought to myself, this is one smart dude. I really”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, I liked it. And the other thing, Ben, is that I drive up in my little Chevrolet convertible, and I see these Lincolns and these Cadillacs. And I said, damn. And I'm sitting like third away from the front. I never heard Dr. King speak Never ever heard him speak before”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Understand This had a profound effect on me, this little black kid. So I'm telling Dr. King all about this. And he's listening. And at the end, I'm telling I can't help him. And he is crestfallen. I mean really crestfallen. That was a Frid My phone rings the next morning I answered a phone. He says Attorney Jones, I say, Yes, my name is Dora MacDonald. I said yes I am the personal secretary of doctor King. And you know, Attorney Jones, he forgot he's going to be preaching in Baldwin Hills tomorrow at Baptist Church and he would like for you to be his guest. No, I had only been in California like a year, but I knew something about Balone Hills. Baldwin Hills at that time was like the Black Beverly Hills. So I'm feeling guilty. So I said, oh, this people won't leave me alone. I go to this church. Now I had, as I said”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't think that I'm beautiful. No, it has nothing to do with the objective facts as to whether I am or not, but that's what I think I am.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The nuns would say, Master Jones. a good boy. Jesus loves We love you And you are beautiful. Be a good boy Jesus loves you. We love you. I'd said that to me The time I was six into tenth. So I'm telling Dr. King this. I'm telling you, like I told Dr. King. So when you hear that from the time you're six to fourteen, so when I transition to public school. I believe that stuff No, I didn't remember all that other thing. We love you, but the thing that I remember. Was it Jesus loves you? And you were beautiful. So, when I went to public school, I noticed a long answer to your question. I got to get this out. I'm 94 years old today. That means today. I don't mean this day 94 years old, January 8th. I'm 94 years old. Let me just tell you something. There is hardly a day that I don't wake up and look in the mirror”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I am an only child My parents were domestic household servants. And my mother was a maiden, a cook, and my father was a chauffeur gardener. So I told Dr. King, I told him about my background. And I told him about one of the most painful things in my life was the death of my mother. I told him about I don't want to digress too much, you see, but I was raised by Irish Catholic nuns. I told them this. So I was raised by Irish Catholic nonsense time. I was six to 14. And it was Irish Catholic nuns used to say to me and other colored boys. My parents were domestic household servants. My mother was a maiden, a cook, my father was a chauffeur. They were too poor to keep me. At the age of six, so they put me in this castle. Boarding school. From six to fourteenth. I was raised by Irish Catholic nuns and the six years old.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I listened to what Dr. King said, and I said, Dr. King, your chief counselor, Duane, told me, and I applaud what you were doing, what you're trying to do now. I went to Boston University Law School. Dr. King went to the Boston School of David. He was two years ahead of me. So when I was in law school, the dean of the Voston Law School, a fellow by the name of Howard Thurman, I heard something around Boston about how this had this bright young teacher from, and I didn't paint. That wasn't my thing. Anyway, so he gets right to the point. About how he needs help. And I listened to him. And I said, Dr. King, I'd like to help you. I said to Judge Delaney, I'll do research in you, but I'm living here. I can't come. He wanted me to come to Alabama. Can't do that. So we asked me some questions about myself, some questions about my mother.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He says Attorney Jones. He says, we have lots of white lawyers, particularly from the Northeast, from Harvard and University of Pennsylvania and Yale who want to help us. Said, but what we need a young Negro lawyer is like you to help us or people who are struggling for our freedom in the South. So I listened.”
2025-02-01 · a16z Podcast · Ben Horowitz Sharing History with Dr. Clarence Jones, MLK's Speechwriter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source