Congress Gets Conflicting Views
on Value of King Papers to LC
Congress is getting sharply conflicting opinions on the value of Martin Luther King Jr.’s post-1960 papers, and Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who persuaded President Clinton to include $20 million in his 1999 budget to buy the papers for the Library of Congress, now doubts the deal will go through.
Pulitzer Prize–winning King biographer David Garrow says the collection has little research value without the Southern Christian Leadership Conference papers, which the King family refuses to sell. Willis VanDevanter, who appraised the papers for the LC, disagreed. “This is absolutely stupendous material,” he said, and labeled Garrow’s assessment “poppycock,” the Associated Press reported May 21.
“If we don’t do this purchase, I envision some wealthy white family going to an auction house, getting the papers, and then selling them back to this same government 20 years from now for $100 million,” warned Clyburn.
Legislation authorizing what would be the most expensive manuscript collection Congress has ever bought for LC had passed unanimously in the Senate in November 1999 but stalled in the House.
Posted May 29, 2000.
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