Dr. Rogers and Clarence Jones - Fifteen years of a friendship and partnership that built Spill The Honey

These words were shared at the National Convening of the Black-Jewish Alliance in Miami on Friday, May 29th, in memory of Clarence Jones.

Clarence Jones had a remarkable sense of timing. Behind the scenes, he helped shape some of the most transformative moments in American history, and somehow it feels fitting — almost bashert, meant to be — that this Summit is happening right now. In many ways, it feels like Clarence is still guiding this work from the other side.

Clarence treated everyone like family. He treated me like a daughter. Whether he was speaking with a waiter, a hotel employee, or President Biden at the White House, he made every person feel seen, valued, and connected.

I first met Clarence fifteen years ago at the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, where he was speaking about his book, What Would Martin Say? As Dr. King’s lawyer, speechwriter, confidant, and later the steward of King’s papers at Stanford, few people understood Dr. King’s vision more deeply than Clarence. That day, when he spoke about antisemitism and the historic Black-Jewish alliance, I was deeply moved. That moment began a fifteen-year friendship and partnership devoted to bridge-building.

For Clarence, this work was deeply personal. At Columbia University, many of his closest friends were Jewish. One friend’s mother owned an Israeli restaurant and, knowing Clarence was living on a shoestring budget, filled his bowl nightly with kneidlach chicken soup. Throughout his life — from becoming the first Black member of the New York Stock Exchange with Sandy Weill to strategizing civil rights campaigns with Stanley Levison — many of his closest partners and friends were Jewish. He believed deeply that Black and Jewish communities were stronger together.

One of my favorite memories was driving Clarence overnight from Los Angeles to San Francisco when his flight was canceled just before filming a documentary with Steph Curry. At 94 years old, he was still determined to talk about Spill the Honey and the importance of Black-Jewish relations. That documentary about Clarence's life will be released on Netflix this November.

In Clarence’s eyes, all of you are my siblings. And he would charge all of us to carry this work forward. L’dor v’dor — from generation to generation. The work we are doing here to build a National Strategy for Black and Jewish partnership ensures that a vital part of Clarence Jones’ life’s work will live on. As Clarence would say, “Let’s get to work!”

We’re going to play a short 3-minute clip from my film Shared Legacies, and you’ll see Dr. Clarence Jones is the first speaker and sprinkled through the clip.