Synopsis

Clarence Jones doesn't just tell you what Martin would say; he takes you on a journey through history, punctuated by intimate, insightful glimpses into the heart and mind of his dear friend. Jones speaks with a clarity and spirit that rings of authority, and he pulls no punches when rendering the opinions he believes Dr. King would have about the most serious threats and challenges we face today, as a nation and as part of a global community.

The book is packed with gems of American history that no one else could give us. Chapter One includes the author’s account of his first meeting with Dr. King in 1960, when King began a campaign to convince Jones to leave a lucrative L.A. law practice and become his lead counsel. What followed were eight momentous years, filled with 24/7 weeks at Martin's side at the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement. Jones was to become one of King’s two closest allies, whom he called his wintertime soldiers, a man who would stand with him “…in the snow at midnight in the Alpine chill of winter.”

In the second of seven often provocative chapters, Jones delivers a particularly incisive punch to those who would deign to call themselves black leaders, admonishing them for their rhetoric of grievance that serves to engender and perpetuate a myth of Black victimization, thus guaranteeing the continued need for “leaders” to liaison with the White power structure. Few of these men, says Jones, would pass the “Martin Luther King test of integrity,” because they have allowed money and ego to obscure the true role of a leader, which is to uplift and inspire his followers.

Jones is equally unambiguous about how MLK would view affirmative action (We don‘t need it anymore. It’s racially divisive, and propagates the illusion of black inferiority.); illegal immigration (Illegals, go home and reform your own government! You are taking jobs from Americans--African and otherwise--whose ancestors built this country.); and anti-Semitism (Knock it off! Jews share a history of slavery with black people, and they contributed both money and the blood of their youth to assist the “…Negroes’ struggle for civil rights.”).

Martin’s reaction to the Iraqi war is somewhat less transparent, and some of the author’s conclusions are surprising, in light of Dr. King‘s core principles of non-violence. Islamic extremism, according to Jones-as-King, is more terrible even than racial oppression, and we don’t have time for the kind of peaceful progress toward justice that works in a Judeo-Christian country like America.

In the final chapter, “What Martin Would Say About Who Killed Him,” the fallen leader, uses the author’s pen to confront his killer, James Earl Ray. Swinging mercilessly between damnation and redemption, he then slaps the FBI with a well-substantiated indictment for his assassination. He gives Ray, the supposed lone gunman, a message for J. Edgar Hoover, should they happen to meet in the dark beyond: “…whether it takes another forty years or a hundred, the truth you’ve tried to hide about what happened to me and our nation on April 4, 1968, will see the sunlight. And I pray that you do too, someday.”

With this book, Clarence Jones translates Martin for a modern audience confronted with a range of serious issues and hungry for the kind of moral leadership Dr. King gave the country during perilous times. “These, too, are perilous times,” says Jones. “And as one of his winter soldiers, I believe I owe it to him--and to the vision of the just world for which he lived and died--to imagine what kind of leadership and advice Martin would offer us today.” As to how accurately Jones has portrayed King‘s point of view, we can only ask: “What would Martin say?”