Franklin, Young lead bid to buy King papers
By MARIA SAPORTA, MAE GENTRY
The Atlanta Journal-Consitution
Published on: 06/18/06
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and former Mayor Andrew Young are working quietly with Herman Russell and other influential residents to raise money and find a home in Atlanta for Martin Luther King Jr.'s personal papers, which will be auctioned June 30 at Sotheby's in New York.
"I've been talking to a lot of people," said Young, who was a close aide to King during the civil rights movement. "There are a number of people trying to find ways to get a group together. But, if you can do it, you can best do it if it's kept quiet."
Franklin did not want to comment on the effort to raise money to bid on the collection, which is being sold by King's children.
"Mum is the word," she said. But she added: "It's accurate to say that the King papers in Atlanta and the capital city of the South would be a slam dunk — if we could figure it out."
Emory University President Jim Wagner said the school would donate money for the bid and offer to house the documents, which date from 1946 until 1968, the year the civil rights leader was assassinated.
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