Laurence Jones served as Martin Luther King’s personal attorney throughout most of the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, when King was imprisoned in Alabama, Jones smuggled paper and pencils into the jail for King to write down his thoughts and subsequently smuggled King’s writings out of the jail in his pants as he recounts in What would Martin Say? Among them was the famous, Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

I was thrilled, recently, to receive a copy of the manuscript for Jones’ book, What Would Martin Say? to be published in hardback by HarperCollins on April 4, 2008, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his beloved friend. I have known Clarence Jones since the 1980s when we worked together at Inner CityBroadcasting. Jones, an international investment advisor and businessman with a host of firsts in his resume, completed the book while a scholar in residence at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.

In What Would Martin Say? he puts forth what he believes would be King’s responses to several of the pressing issues of today, including black leadership, immigration, terrorism and the Iraq war. As an example, regarding illegal immigration Jones states that “Martin would be outraged by the greater immorality of importing a slave class into this country, especially one that has robbed so many African Americans of the hard-won livelihoods–in the building trades, for instance, and even in garbage pick-up, which was after all the issue that had brought Martin to Memphis on that terrible day in 1968.” He goes on to point out that black leaders have been silent on this issue, illegal immigration, which is of grave concern to the nation and should be for black people and their elected officials. I wonder what Martin would say about a circumstance that I have been recently made of aware of.

St. James Preparatory School in Newark is the only private black high school in the area, perhaps the only one of its kind in the metropolitan area. St. James was built from the ground up in 1999 by the congregation of St. James A.M.E. Church and its pastor Rev. Dr. William D. Watley, himself a Martin Luther King Scholar. He has written several books among them, Roots of Resistance, The Nonviolent Ethic of Martin Luther King Jr. The circumstance is that St. James Preparatory School, a state-of the-art institution with a 100% college/ university placement rate is threatened with closure because of low enrollment figures and lack of funds. Can we, as a community, allow this institution that is dedicated to excellence and scholastic achievement in a spiritual and cultural setting be sacrificed for lack of caring, and neglect?

Are we to subject those students and parents willing to take the road less traveled to failure? What does it say about us when luxury excess and bling take precedence over education? I think I know what Martin would say. St. James is embarking on a major fundraising and enrollment campaign. We will keep you updated on the progress and hope to elicit your support. This is an SOS—Save Our School—for St. James Preparatory School. Find out what you can do, how you can contribute. Contact Dean Robbie Mosely at 973-643-4749. Save Our School!