Clarence Jones was the person who secreted out the scraps of paper that Martin Luther King, Jr. used to write his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” He wrote part of King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, and he fought to have the transcripts of his FBI-taped conversations with the civil rights leader released under the Freedom of Information Act. With a rare, intimate perspective on King’s leadership, Jones offers insights on the personal toll of social activism, the evolution of the civil rights icon as a leader, and the ways the myth and mystique of his legacy overshadow key aspects of his life and personality — lessons that apply to current social movements at a divided moment in America.