King Papers Stay in Atlanta

Civic coalition pays $32M to avert auction, but future unclear

By Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 8/15/2006

Once again, a plan to auction a valuable collection of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal papers was scrapped—but not without controversy. A sale via Sotheby’s was averted when the city of Atlanta helped organize a nonprofit coalition that will spend $32 million for the papers and keep the collection in that city, King’s hometown. The papers eventually will go to Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta and King’s alma mater.

Loretta Parham, director and CEO at the Robert Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, said the purchase was a surprise to her library, which will have initial custody. “We feel complimented,” Parham said, “by what we see as a vote of confidence that we will play a role with the college and the city in the care and handling of this collection.”

Woodruff is a joint library that serves as the exclusive, official library for Morehouse, Spelman College, the Interdenominational Theological Center, and Clark Atlanta University. Brenda S. Banks, who recently retired as deputy director of the Georgia Department of Archives and History, was named to oversee the King collection. A former president of the Society of American Archivists, Banks is a graduate of Spelman College and Atlanta University.

In a stinging Atlanta-Journal Constitution editorial, however, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Taylor Branch strongly criticized elements of the deal. Citing “hidden conditions” to the sale, Branch questioned whether King’s legacy will be “secure.” It appears that the King heirs expect to retain control of both the intellectual property rights as well as access to the collection “on a case-by-case basis,” an alarming aspect, Branch wrote, given the estate’s reputation for “screening researchers and their topics, shutting down whole collections, and charging selective fees.”

Branch said he did not wish to deny a financial payday to King’s heirs but urged the estate to follow King’s own example in donating a collection of his papers for free and without undue restrictions to Boston University, where King also earned a degree. Woodruff’s Parham acknowledged that the city could move the papers to another institution, including a potential civil rights museum, but said that Branch, who questioned the lack of a “suitable library” at Morehouse, was apparently unaware of the Woodruff Library.