Robert D. McFadden, writing for The New York Times (gift link):

Clarence B. Jones, a confidant, lawyer and speechwriter for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, who helped plan the March on Washington and drafted part of Dr. King’s celebrated “I Have a Dream” speech, died on Friday in Cupertino, Calif. He was 95. […]

A brilliant organizer and a member of Dr. King’s inner circle, Mr. Jones planned protest campaigns; raised funds for Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and coordinated legal strategies to challenge discriminatory laws, defend arrested demonstrators and fight lawsuits against their leaders.

Along with his many other accomplishments, Jones hand-wrote the copyright symbol onto mimeographed copies of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and filed for formal copyright; from a 2013 SFGate article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the speech:

A few days after the speech, Jones filed a formal application for statutory copyright. […]

The copyright certificate was issued to Clarence B. Jones, Esq., but he signed it over to King and mailed it to his secretary, with a note attached reading, “Who knows, Dora. I doubt that it will have any economic importance but someday it could.”

Jones was a good lawyer. That tiny decision was worth millions to MLK’s estate.