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Coalition Buys Personal Papers of US Civil Rights Legend
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=12C158F:3919ACA Thousands of
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s papers purchased by group of business, civic
leaders in Atlanta





Martin Luther King Jr.'s invitations to the inauguration of President
John F. Kennedy are displayed at Sotheby's in New YorkThousands of
personal papers belonging to the late U.S. civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. have been bought by a group of business and civic
leaders in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

The papers were purchased just a week before they were to be sold at
auction.

Under the deal announced Friday, the papers will be donated to
Atlanta's Morehouse College, a historically African-American
university and King's alma mater.

Historians consider the collection one of the greatest American
archives of the 20th century in private hands. It includes such items
as handwritten drafts of his famous I Have a Dream speech delivered at
the 1963 March on Washington, and his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance
speech the next year.

The collection had been scheduled to be auctioned by New York's
Sotheby's next Friday.

The auction house valued the collection at $15 million to $30 million.

Because King's children stipulated the collection be sold intact, the
auction had expected to attract several academic and civic
institutions.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He is
buried in Atlanta alongside his wife, Coretta, who died five months
ago.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.


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