Editor 's note : Clarence B. Jones , author of `` What Would Martin Say ? '' is Scholar in Residence at the Stanford University Martin Luther King Jr. . Research & Education Institute . He was a lawyer and speechwriter for Dr. King . Clarence Jones says America is indebted to Martin Luther King Jr. for breaking its addiction to segregation . Next week , the day after our national holiday commemorating the 80th birthday of Dr. King , Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States , the first African-American elected as president . Obama 's election would not have been possible without the transformative effect of Dr. King 's struggle , leadership and legacy in dismantling segregation and institutional racism in the United States . America owes a great debt to Dr. King . Prior to him , our nation was like a dysfunctional drug addict or alcoholic , hooked and addicted to segregation and institutional racism . His `` tough love '' of nonviolent direct action civil disobedience forced America to confront its conscience and the immorality of racial injustice . Dr. King enabled our country to embark on an extraordinary journey of recovery to reclaim its soul . He enabled us to reactivate those precepts enshrined in our Declaration of Independence : `` all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . '' In twelve years and four months , from 1956 to April 4 , 1968 -- except for President Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation -- Martin Luther King Jr. may have done more to achieve racial , social and political justice and equality in America than any other person in our country 's history . Dr. King had confidence in the democratic future of America . He believed that we , as a people , would be able to `` transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood . '' I met Martin Luther King , Jr. for the first time 49 years ago when he visited my home in California to enlist my assistance in the defense of a criminal tax indictment against him by the state of Alabama . Only six months earlier , I had graduated from Boston University Law School . I worked for him as a law clerk , political organizer , personal lawyer and , at his request , I drafted speeches for Dr. King until his death on April 4 , 1968 . He was an ordained Christian minister before he was a civil rights leader . His religious faith and abiding belief in God were the fuel that ignited the engine of his moral leadership . President-elect Obama 's religion and belief in God appear central to his political leadership . During the 40 years following Dr , King 's assassination in Memphis , Tennessee , the most recurring question asked of me has been : `` Who today , what black leader , if anyone , is most like Dr. King ? '' I would consistently answer that Dr. King was sui generis , one of a kind And , then ask rhetorically : `` Who today is most like Michelangelo , Mozart , Galileo , Copernicus , Aristotle , Beethoven or Shakespeare ? '' Since Obama 's election , I have been asked : • Is Barack Obama another Martin Luther King Jr ? • What would Dr. King say about the election of Obama ? • Does the election of Obama , as the first African-American president of the United States , mean that Dr. King 's dream has been fulfilled ? • Does Obama 's election indicate that racism for all practical purposes no longer exists in America ? • Will Obama 's election have any impact on the number of African-American men incarcerated or the high percentage of out-of-wedlock births within the African-American community ? There are no easy answers to these questions , but it is clear that those of us in the civil rights movement of the 1960s never anticipated the event we will witness Tuesday . After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy , and the assumption of the presidency by former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson , some of us who worked closely with Dr. King , concluded no fundamental change in race relations in America could be accomplished successfully and sustained unless it was done under the political leadership of a white man from the south , people like Presidents Lyndon Johnson , Jimmy Carter , Bill Clinton and George W. Bush . Our belief was predicated on the political assumption that America would be more willing to follow a white southern political leader on the issues of race relations and equal economic opportunity than a politician from another part of our country . We never contemplated the realistic possibility of a black president of the United States in our lifetimes . The 1965 Voting Rights Act sparked the prairie fires of subsequent black voter registration and voting which dramatically altered the political landscape of America . It was this legislative foundation that fostered and facilitated the political possibility of a successful Obama candidacy for president . `` We Shall Overcome '' was our national anthem of the Civil Rights Movement under Dr. King 's leadership . President-elect Obama , like a masterful musical composer with perfect pitch , successfully updated , translated and rearranged `` We Shall Overcome '' to a `` Yes , We Can '' surround-sound mantra for the cell phone , YouTube , Facebook , MySpace and Internet-blackberry generation . This may be the most enduring 21st Century tribute to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Clarence Jones .