USA: Papers and books from the estate of Martin Luther King Jr. to be auctioned by Sotherby's in New York

More than 10,000 manuscripts and books from the estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., many in the hand of the crusader for justice and non-violence, will be sold on June 30, Sotheby's auction house said on Thursday (June 21). The auction will be preceded by a nine-day exhibition June 21-29 of items ranging from drafts of some of King's most famous speeches and essays to his blue test booklets from college. More than 7,000 items offered are in King's own hand. The collection includes an early draft of his historic "I Have a Dream" speech, four typed pages with handwritten notes, and his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Sotheby's vice chairman, David Redden told Reuters that the collection is more than important for Sotheby's. "It's important for the United States to have this collection, it's important for the world to have this collection. This collection belongs in a great institution where it can be viewed by the public, by scholars, be used to understand the twentieth century, to understand the mind of one of the greatest movers of our times," he said. In 1962, King was incarcerated in an Albany, Georgia prison for a minor act of civil disobedience. He kept a seven-page diary whilst there, which provides a glimpse of King's personal experiences. In the notes he discusses the filth inside the cells as well as how much support his wife, Coretta has given him. King also writes about the effects of his imprisonment on his children. "Coretta says that when their eldest daughter Yolanda found out that her daddy was in jail she began to cry. And for King this really was inconceivable. He says 'I've never adjusted quite to bringing my children up under such inexplicable conditions'. And how do explain to a little child why you have to go to jail. Coretta developed an answer, she tells them that daddy's gone to jail to help the people," explained Elizabeth Muller, Vice President, Department of Books and Manuscripts. King had a vast collection of books which are part of the lot to be auctioned. He made many notes on the pages and the margins of books, almost as if having a conversation with the writer. The collection, to be auctioned 38 years after the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner's assassination, will be sold in a single lot and is expected to fetch 15 to 30 million U.S. dollars. Redden believes this to be a very conservative estimate. Because the King collection will be auctioned, it leaves the possibility that important historical and academic documents could land I the hands of private collectors and not a museum or a library. This has cause controversy because some scholars claim it would make historical research difficult or even impossible. "The collection's being sold as one lot, so it's not being broken up, it's being sold as one unit. It's being sold with the restriction that it must be kept together certainly within the lifetime of King's children. So that makes it very hard for anybody who wanted to buy it and break it up and speculate on the value or something of that sort. And thirdly the King's have given some extended rights of exhibition to institutions. But, nevertheless it remains possible that private buyer could but this and therefore it's a real challenge. It's a challenge to the institutions of America to step forward and make this extraordinary collection permanently part of the sort of the public domain," said David Redden. Among the auction items are more than 50 books and pamphlets by and about the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Like him, King's spiritual quest led the Baptist minister to confront issues beyond his original civil rights campaign, such as the Vietnam War. One note paper is particularly relevant, according to Muller. "Perhaps one of the most wrenching and poignant of documents is a small little scrap of paper which has a quotation from Ghandi on it. And in the midst of life we're in death and you would have to say yes to life by saying no to violence. And that's, but the little scrap of paper had been folded and re-folded as though it had been in a billfold and taken out many, many times and read over and over an pondered. So it was something that seemed to be very close to doctor King's heart," she said. King was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. Four days later, a bill was introduced in Congress for a national holiday in his honour. Fifteen years later, the holiday was signed into law and another two years later, in 1985, it was first observed. His widow, Coretta Scott King, died in January 2006. The King estate runs the King Center in Atlanta, which includes his crypt, a museum, library resources and a gift shop. The King Center has suffered financial and management disputes among the Kings' children.

ITN Source | June 23, 2006

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