ATLANTA
Historical records for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including sympathy cards when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, have been placed with Emory University’s Manuscript Archives and Rare Book Library.
“Emory is delighted to care for, catalog and share this unique intellectual resource with visitors from around the city and the world,” Emory Provost Earl Lewis said Thursday in a statement.
Highlights of the collection include photographs documenting events such as voter registration workshops during the civil rights movement, and drafts of speeches by Ralph David Abernathy and others, many annotated in the hands of their authors.
The SCLC was co-founded in 1957 by King and other African-American leaders from across the South with the purpose of advancing the cause of racial equality.
The archive acquired by Emory contains 1,100 boxes, the second-largest collection placed with the manuscript archives behind former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn’s congressional archive.
Lewis said Emory purchased the material but added, “We never disclose the price.”
