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New York --- First there were high-fives, hugs and emotional tears over Atlanta's $32 million acquisition of an extensive collection of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s writings.
Now comes the next chapter.
With New York Gov. George Pataki in one part of Sotheby's Manhattan auction house, movie star Cicely Tyson in another and dignitaries mingling throughout, Mayor Shirley Franklin and other Atlanta leaders on Thursday began the task of trying to pay for the deal.
"After business leaders and others have had the opportunity to visit this collection, the intensity to invest in it will only increase," said John Ahmann, a prominent Atlantan who worked closely with Franklin on the deal to buy King's writings.
Ahmann said a reception and dinner at Sotheby's on Thursday, the last day of an exhibit of King works, was held to thank donors and "to invite others who were interested in the papers who wanted to help us pay down the debt rapidly."
SunTrust Banks last week provided a $32 million loan, backed by pledges of cash and guarantees from prominent individuals and companies, that allowed a consortium to purchase the collection and keep it from being auctioned today. The King cache includes drafts of his famous 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech and hundreds of other essays, annotations, sermons and books.
"I am thoroughly ... convinced that this fund-raising effort will be successful in short order," said Ingrid Saunders Jones, a Coca-Cola executive.
Franklin told the group it was her role to get the papers to Atlanta "and raise the money to pay for them."
She then pointed to Walter Massey, president of Morehouse College, as the man who would raise the money to take care of them.
"I will do pitching on both fronts --- to try to pay off the loan and to raise money to take care of the papers," Massey said later. Young moved to tears
Morehouse, King's alma mater, will eventually own the papers. The school just completed a major capital campaign in which it raised $120 million, $15 million above its goal. "I thought I was finished fund-raising," Massey said, half-joking. "But when you have a good story to tell and a good message, people will contribute. We have a good story here."
Hundreds of dignitaries gathered at Sotheby's on Thursday, the last time the King papers would be seen publicly at the auction house before being moved home to Atlanta within several weeks.
"It's absolutely incredible," said Mike Garrett, president of Georgia Power and chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. "I had some idea of what we had accomplished in protecting our history and legacy. But to see this goes far beyond any expectation I had of what this collection was all about.
"It's history almost coming back to life."
Atlanta builder Herman Russell, who has already donated $1 million toward purchasing the papers, said seeing the exhibit "blows your mind. ... It would have been one of the biggest tragedies of Atlanta if we had not stepped up to save these valuable papers. This is one of the greatest investments the people of Atlanta have ever made. It is more than I anticipated."
Although he lived through the tumultuous civil rights movement, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who was instrumental in pushing Atlanta to buy the papers, was moved to tears as he surveyed the King writings.
"As close as I was to Dr. King, I had no idea of how much he kept in writing," said Young, an aide to the civil rights leader, a confidant to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, and a father figure to their four children after King was assassinated in 1968.
"It was emotional for me because I know that everything that we have done was based on his sacrifice and his suffering, and there is no achievement that could have happened had he not lived --- for just 39 years," Young said. King's impact illuminated
Gasps could be heard at various points during the tour.
"I am overwhelmed," said Franklin, who was seeing the papers for the first time. "Seeing them, we just can't even begin to appreciate the impact Martin King has had on all of us."
A few minutes after the official Atlanta tour ended, King's sister Christine King Farris and her son, Isaac Farris, who is president of the Atlanta-based King Center, arrived and were taken on a private tour.
Two of King's children, Yolanda and Bernice, also attended the evening event.
Fund-raisers in Atlanta said that while the $32 million needed to pay off the loan is a challenge, the King legacy makes it less problematic.
"This situation is one of a kind," said Beauchamp Carr, executive vice president of the Woodruff Arts Center and the man who, 35 years ago, led fund-raising efforts that saved the Fox Theatre from the wrecking ball.
"The MLK papers have a mystique verging on the mystique of an ancient relic," Carr said. "They are so incredibly special that the usual rules may not apply. I can't predict how the support will come through. But it's not the same as raising money for a museum or a hospital. Support won't just be local. It will be national, even international."
Staff writer Jeffry Scott contributed to this article.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
