A $32 million dollar deal announced Friday, June 23, 2006 will prevent the Martin Luther King Jr. papers from being auctioned and keep them in Atlanta.
A private coalition of business and civic leaders bought the collection from the King family following concerted efforts by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and former Mayor Andrew Young.
Mayor Franklin's office said that the group purchasing the papers represented the interests of Atlanta. King was an Atlanta native and both he and his wife Coretta Scott King, who died earlier this year, are buried in the city.
Under the deal, Morehouse -- King's alma mater -- will own the collection. But the thousands of historic papers and manuscripts might not be housed on the school's campus. Morehouse said it is working to arrange temporary housing and to find a permanent location in Atlanta where the papers will be available for public access.
The collection includes items ranging from canceled checks, to a term paper he wrote as a student at Morehouse, to a draft of his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream," delivered at the 1963 March on Washington, his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance address and a printed version of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
"This is a wonderful outcome for this collection" said Dexter King, one of King's sons and the chief executive officer of his estate.
"I know my mother would have been happy to see the collection housed permanently in Atlanta, which always meant so much to her and to our family."