DOC What Would Martin Say? by Clarence B. Jones; Joel Engel in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. PowerfulBy MCWonderfully written book.13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Should be titled "What Would Clarence Say?"By Al SweigartIf you're hoping to find out the political views of the author; Clarence B. Jones; this is the book for you. Or if you'd like to be outraged by a former colleague of Martin Luther King using MLK's legacy to endorse a number of right-wing talking points 40 years after his death; this is also the book for you.I'll save you a read. According to Jones; Martin Luther King would:* be against affirmative action (he also uses this chapter to note how bad black-on-black crime is)* view undocumented immigrants as stealing jobs and lament our poor border security (not content with just speaking for Dr. King; on page 116; Clarence also says that this is also the opinion that God himself has)* be in favor of the Iraq war and panicked about Saddam Hussein smuggling suitcase nukes into Chicago; Seattle; Los Angeles; Washington; and New York (Jones must have known MLK *very* well to come up with this oddly specific scenario)* leap to the defense of Israel (itself laudable; though this was the shortest chapter and one can see how if it had been a few more pages; Jone's pro-Israel stance would shortly become an anti-Palestinian screed. Especially given that he spends so much of the next chapter constructing his own Willie Horton ad for Islamic terrorism.)The first chapter starts off promising: Jones recounts his conversations with King; and King recruited him to join the civil rights movement. But as I continued to read; my skepticism rose. Jones' tether to what MLK said and did begins to stretch more. By halfway through the book; every time I read "what Martin would say is..." I would roll my eyes at the rant that followed which was clearly coming from the mouth of the aging conservative. While the entire book is Jones writing about Jones; the first chapter is the only one where he's honest about this.This is a book of Clarence B. Jones' political views; and that is fine. But the more I read and the more I saw him using his association with King to put his words into the four-decade-cold mouth of King; the more unconscionable it became. Wide spans of the book don't even bother with trying to justify why 1960s King would agree with 2000s Jones based on Kings words and actions (which arguably would often be quite the opposite). Halfway through the book; I knew I couldn't give this a three-star review. By the end; I knew I couldn't even give it two-stars.One-star. I only wish I read the back cover first so that I could have been warned by the glowing praise given it by Roger Ailes; the disgraced former CEO of Fox News. The book is an insult.3 of 5 people found the following review helpful. The legal truthBy Soldiers Wife 11I am so pleased to review this enlightning book; I was so informed; and I am more informed because of it! This attorney has so many on- hand experiences to share with the world! He tells it straight and from a balanced perspective.