Martin Luther King Jr.’s Papers

They are cornerstones of American culture and history: Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches, such as “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop;” and writings including “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” These and 7,000 other priceless pieces of King’s life—including his Nobel Peace Prize lecture and a draft of his acceptance speech—are now on view in King’s birthplace, Atlanta, after a long journey that almost saw them sold away to auction.

Last summer, King’s family enlisted Sotheby’s to put the collection—estimated to be worth about $30 million—up for auction as one block, not to be broken up while King’s children are alive. Among the treasures from the late Coretta Scott King’s home and the King library in Atlanta: notebooks and exams from his years at Morehouse College and Crozer Theological Seminary; books with King’s personal notes in the margins; drafts of his famous speeches and sermons; diaries, and telegrams from famous figures in history. Institutions such as museums and the Library of Congress expressed interest.

“It’s the most important American archive in private hands today,” David Redden, vice chairman of Sotheby’s, told National Public Radio (NPR) last summer.

But as word of the June thirtieth auction circulated around Atlanta, community leaders balked that a key part of its own history might be taken from the city. Civic, business, and private sector groups, led by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and former Atlanta mayor, UN Ambassador, and King family friend Andrew Young, raised $32 million to buy the collection for Morehouse College, King’s alma mater, and the nation’s only all male historically black institution of higher learning. Then, the auction was canceled.

About 600 pieces of the collection currently are on display at the Atlanta History Center through May 13, 2007. The exhibit is in ten sections:

1) Measure of a Man: Education: Papers pertaining to King’s years at Morehouse, Crozer, and Boston University, where he was awarded his PhD;

2) King Library: King’s personal book collection, including works on religion, civil rights, and Mahatma Gandhi;

3) Strength to Love: Sermons: Drafts of several of King’s most famous sermons;

4) Strive Toward Freedom: Various documents and strategy papers from the early days of the Civil Rights movement, including those pertaining to the bus boycott of Montgomery, Alabama;

5) Why We Can’t Wait: Included are a personal diary of King’s from his time in the Albany city jail in 1962, and a telegram from Robert F. Kennedy inviting King to President John Kennedy’s funeral;

6) Where Do We Go From Here: Civil rights documents from the mid-1960s;

7) Letter from Birmingham Jail: An early draft of this famous document;

8) I Have a Dream: Including what is thought to be the only copy of an early draft of this speech in King’s handwriting;

9) The Nobel Peace Prize: Papers from King’s 1964 ceremony; and

10) Memphis: Documents pertaining to King’s final days and assassination, including an outline of a sermon played at King’s funeral.

The Atlanta History Center, on thirty-three acres in Buckhead, an affluent district of Atlanta, includes one of the Southeast’s largest history museums, a research library, archives, and gardens.

The King collection establishes Atlanta as an historic home of civil rights and human rights, Mayor Franklin told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when the sale was announced. “Getting the papers shows that the entire community is embracing that legacy.”