Asbury Park High School: MLK Day with Dr. Clarence B. Jones

To celebrate Dr. King Day, Mr. Wronko shared with his Asbury Park High students the time he had a video conference with Dr. Clarence Benjamin Jones.

Dr. Clarence Benjamin Jones at Asbury Park High School

Mr. Wronko explained that Dr. Jones was personal counsel, draft speech writer, and friend to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Dr. Jones took time out of his busy schedule to join a video conference in which Asbury Park High School students participated.

Presentation topics

Mr. Wronko highlighted for his students the following areas of Dr. Jones’ presentation:

• • His time working with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement and the challenges they faced in the south during the 1960s.
  • How history in this country should not be ignored or forgotten.
  • The harmful treatment of African Americans during slavery.

The racism African Americans had to overcome in the south after the Civil War

• The importance of the 1619 project being studied in schools which showed:
• How African Americans were enslaved
• How they overcame being enslaved.
• How their strong march during the Civil Rights Movement established the momentum for equal rights in the United States.

Mr. Wronko also drew his students’ attention to the fact that Dr. Jones knew Malcolm X and Harry Belafonte. He also explained how Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded in getting Civil Rights Legislation through the U.S. Congress.

It was an important moment for Asbury Park High School to have such an important historical and Civil Rights figure speak.

For more on Dr. Clarence Benjamin Jones, visit his institute for social justice.