In loving Memory of Dr. Clarence B. Jones

On Saturday, October 3, 2026, a moving memorial was held for our beloved Spill the Honey Founding Chair, and civil rights legend Dr. Clarence B. Jones at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. Here's the eulogy shared by Dr. Shari Rogers, our President and Co-Founder.

Good afternoon.

For more than a decade, Clarence Jones was my friend, teacher, and collaborator. From him, I learned that relationships built on respect, trust, and love can inspire meaningful work—and that when we recognize our common humanity, we can build something lasting together.

Clarence understood something else deeply: history only matters if we pass it on.

He didn’t just lend his voice to Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance; he helped us document the witnesses to this history.

Clarence personally called Harry Belafonte. He brought me into rooms I never could have entered on my own. We attended Reverend Dr. C. T. Vivian’s 90th birthday together and traveled to Selma and Montgomery, where we filmed Dr. Susannah Heschel and Jawana Jackson at the historic Jackson Home—the place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel stayed during the Selma campaign.

Clarence knew these people. He knew this history. He lived this history. But he also understood that preserving history wasn’t enough. We had to make young people care about it.

I saw that clearly when Clarence spoke to 100 high school students from Detroit and the surrounding suburbs at an event honoring the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He told them:

“I came all this way in the freezing cold from San Francisco to tell you this history. And if I find out that you are not carrying the honey forward, I will find out.”

That was Clarence. He did not simply share history with young people; he challenged them to accept responsibility for what they did with it.

That is why some of our earliest work together included Clarence honoring the legacy of Detroit hip-hop producer J Dilla. Clarence was a musician himself, and he understood that music can reach places words alone cannot.

That insight became part of the DNA of Spill The Honey.

Our documentary ends with the Spill The Honey anthem, “No More Silence,” a call to move from remembering history to acting on its lessons—to stand against antisemitism, racism, and hate, and to choose our common humanity.

Through Shared Legacies and its classroom curriculum—including music and hip-hop—we are carrying Clarence’s voice and this history to a new generation, not simply so young people can learn what happened, but so they can use it as a template for healing today.

The Black-Jewish alliance teaches us that people who were different can find one another, show up for one another, and understand that another person’s struggle matters to them. That is what it means to spill the honey.

Near the end of his life, Clarence passed the baton to another longtime civil-rights leader he knew well, Dr. Benjamin Chavis. There is something beautifully fitting about that. Ben helped organize the Million Man March, Clarence helped organize a movement alongside Dr. King, and now another generation is being asked to carry this history forward.

So I invite everyone here to help us carry Clarence’s baton. Honor his legacy by bringing the Shared Legacies classroom documentary, which carries his voice and vision, into a school or community in your hometown.

We are here to help.

Clarence, we heard you. We will keep teaching the history, building relationships across difference, and saying “No More Silence.” We will keep spilling the honey.

I want to end with a line Clarence often quoted from Victor Hugo: “An idea is more powerful than an army.”

Clarence believed that an idea rooted in justice, love, and human dignity could move people, change history, and outlast any force that stood against it.

His ideas are still with us. Now they are ours to carry forward.

So I ask everyone here: spill the honey. Carry this history forward. Share it with your families, communities, and the next generation. Stand against antisemitism, racism, and hate. Show up for one another.

That is how we honor Clarence, carry the baton, and keep his legacy, work, and vision alive.

I love you, Clarence.