The Baldwin–Kennedy meeting of May 24, 1963 was an attempt to improve race relations in the United States. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy invited novelist James Baldwin, along with a large group of cultural leaders, to meet Kennedy in an apartment in New York City. The meeting became antagonistic and the group reached no consensus. The black delegation generally felt that Kennedy did not understand the full extent of racism in the United States. Ultimately the meeting demonstrated the urgency of the racial situation and was a positive turning point in Kennedy's attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement.

Clarence Benjamin Jones is an American lawyer and the former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Jones is a scholar in residence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at Stanford University. He is the author of What Would Martin Say? and Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation. His book Last of the Lions was released on August 1, 2023. Jones currently serves as Chairman of the non-profit Spill the Honey Foundation.