WESTPORT — Clarence B. Jones, speechwriter and advisor for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — credited with helping craft the iconic “I Have A Dream” speech — will be the featured guest at Westport’s 18th annual commemoration of King’s legacy on Jan. 14.

The program is set for 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, at the Westport Library, 20 Jesup Road. It is co-sponsored by the library, TEAM Westport, Westport Country Playhouse and the Westport/Weston Interfaith Clergy and Council.

There is no charge to attend, but program organizers recommend advance registration. To sign up online prior to the event, click here. The commemoration also will be live-streamed.

Jones served as legal counsel, advisor and draft speechwriter to King from 1960 until King’s assassination in 1968. He is credited with writing the first seven paragraphs of the “I Have A Dream” speech, which King delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.

“Years ago, Westport was like a second home to me,” Jones said in a statement issued by the Westport Library.

“Fond memories of time spent there with my family. Now this later generation of extended family, Lisa Weitzman and Howard Edelstein, make my return and appearance at the Westport Library, after so many years, more poignant and beautiful,” he said.

Jones was among the leading figures helping organize the civil-rights movement. In addition to being King’s longtime advisor, he was a liaison with other leaders such as Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Robert F. Kennedy.

Also a lawyer and business executive, Jones later forged working relationships with artists, writers, athletes and social-justice activists, including Muhammed Ali, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Lorraine Hansberry. In 1974, he negotiated the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match in Kinshasa, Zaire, between Ali and George Foreman. 

Jones currently is chairman of the Spill the Honey Foundation, which through the arts, seeks to bring “together the historic and contemporary voices of the Black-Jewish alliance to achieve social justice non-violently,” according to the library’s announcement.

He also founded the Dr. Clarence B. Jones Institute for Social Advocacy; serves as the founding director emeritus of the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco, and has served on cultural organizations’ boards, including the Impact Repertory Theater & Dance Company, the Theatre Development Fund NYC and the Roosevelt Institute.

Jones was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of San Francisco and was honored at events at Columbia University, where he was an undergraduate, and the Julliard School of Performing Arts, where he studied music. He graduated from Boston University Law School, where he was honored as the recipient of the Silver Shingle Award for public service.

In 2021, he received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, the highest recognition given by the ABA, awarded at a ceremony featuring a keynote address by former President Barack Obama.

Jones also is the author of two books, “What Would Martin Say?” and “Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation,” as well as articles for numerous publications.

For questions, call the Westport Library at 203-291-4800.