Luther King papers put up for auction
Print Edition
The Rev Martin Luther King Jr’s personal secretary is selling a collection from the early civil rights movement, including handwritten notes by King and a page from his “I Have a Dream” speech, an auction house says.
Maude Ballou worked as King’s secretary from 1955 to 1960, when King led the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Ballou, who turned 88 last Friday, is selling the items on October 17 in New York through Texas-based Heritage Auctions. Part of the proceeds will be used to establish an education fund at Alabama State University.
On Tuesday, Ballou recalled times both rewarding and frightening in those turbulent years, including an especially poignant moment with King in the mid-1950s.
“He said, ‘Maude, I dreamed last night I died and nobody came to my funeral’. And that was very touching,” Ballou said, her chin quivering. “And I said, ‘Oh Martin, that’s not going to happen. Nothing like that’s going to happen to you.'"
King was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Some of the 100-odd items are unique, so it’s difficult to put a value on them, Heritage Auctions’ Sandra Palomino said.
Items awaiting sale include a handwritten letter King sent to Ballou while touring India in 1959 to learn more about Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign of nonviolent resistance.
Another item is a typed final page of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, according to the auction house. The page was sent to Ballou on January 31, 1968, several weeks before King was assassinated, by Lillie Hunter, bookkeeper for the SCLC and secretary to Ralph Abernathy.
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