Ms. Winfrey, Mr. Cosby...couldn't you guys buy this stuff for one of the HBCUs?
Martin Luther King papers, books to be auctioned
Thu Jun 8, 2006 04:04 PM ET
By Gary Hill
NEW YORK (Reuters) - 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 nonviolence, will be sold on June 30, Sotheby's auction house said on Thursday.
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 million to $30 million, Sotheby's said.
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."
Also included is a telegram inviting King to President Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of his crowning achievements as a leader of the civil rights movement. The telegram advised him to "bring your telegram as it will be your admission card."
