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By W. Hassan Marsh
Black College Wire
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Photo credit: Morehouse College
The just-acquired papers of alumnus Martin Luther King
Jr. will attract scholars to Morehouse College, says
President Walter E. Massey. |
Morehouse College stands to gain much more than the 10,000
documents in the collection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. bought
by a coalition of business leaders, individuals and
philanthropic leaders in Atlanta.
Questions about housing the collection and accessibility to
the papers linger, but the college, in acquiring the papers, is
positioning itself for change and improvement in opportunities
for scholarship, facilities and perceptions of the college, its
officials said.
"We have, in our long-range campus development plan, plans
for a facility that would house the papers we already have, so
we'll have to go back and visit those long-range plans, but
we're going to do that in conjunction with the mayor, other
universities and the Atlanta History Center before we make any
final plans," said Walter E. Massey, Morehouse College
president.
The Morehouse community is celebrating the acquisition as a
homecoming. The news came after Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
assembled a coalition of business and civic leaders to donate
money to obtain the collection before a scheduled June 30
auction at Sotheby's auction house in New York.
The collection, bought directly from the King family for $32
million on June 23, includes some 10,000 documents of the late
thinker and social activist, according to Sotheby's. The auction
was canceled.
"Obviously, the papers are priceless," the mayor told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The key is to establish Atlanta
as the home of civil rights and human rights. Getting the papers
shows that the entire community is embracing that legacy."
When the auction was first announced, former ambassador
Andrew Young, who collaborated with King during the civil rights
movement, was quoted as saying, "this is a cheap city if it does
not come up with enough money to keep that heritage here."
As it celebrated the announcement, Morehouse was mourning the
death of Melvin H. Watson Sr., an alumnus and former chairman of
the Philosophy and Religion department.
At Watson's funeral, which took place at King International
Chapel on campus, speakers noted the appropriateness of the
news. Watson had overseen the school's reception of the papers
of Howard Thurman, a Morehouse theologian.
"It can only enhance Morehouse's reputation, nationally and
internationally, and carries the Morehouse tradition of our
alumni, prominent, well-known alumni, be[ing] closely connected
with the college," Massey said in a June 26 interview, just
before catching a flight to New York to view an exhibit of the
collection at the auction house.
"It's another recognition that we are among the finest
colleges in the world, the fact that this kind of collection
would be entrusted into our oversight," said Massey.
"One of the reasons that the city was able to make a deal to
buy the papers before going to auction was that the family
really wanted [it] to come to Morehouse, and they are very
pleased," he said.
There had been speculation that the papers would be housed in
other Atlanta locations. However, Massey dispelled that concern.
"At first, there was some discussion of putting together a
consortium with Emory" University, "the Atlanta History Center
and other institutions, but in the end everyone decided that it
would be more straightforward, just cleaner and better if
Morehouse owned the papers, and then Morehouse would work with
other institutions in the future. And the president of Emory
himself supported that," Massey said.
That does not mean that Morehouse has an exclusive deal.
Stanford University's Martin Luther King Jr. Research and
Education Institute has seen to it that Stanford has photocopies
and scans of the documents, according to a statement posted on
its Web site by Clayborne Carson, the director.
Along with the gift the city gave Morehouse came the
understanding of open accessibility.
"The mayor is interested in building a civil rights museum in
the city that might house some of the papers or an exhibit," he
said. If that happened, Morehouse would likely comply with a
request to house the papers at the museum, or at least exhibit
them there, according to Massey.
Left unsaid was whether Morehouse might be a possible home
for that museum.
Despite the assurances of access to the collection, some
students fear they will not be able to use the documents as
undergraduates.
"First, where are they going to hold it?" asked Steven Ford,
a senior history major from Houston and a research assistant for
two years, speaking of the collection. "And how is Morehouse
going to make it available to the public? In the past, for
students as well as faculty," he said, the archives "really have
not been accessible or been easy to get to. I think Morehouse
really needs to upgrade the work that they're trying to do
because it's not just students that are going to [be] accessing
these papers, but people around the world.
Ford noted that he had been able to research the personal
documents of John Hope, the third president of Morehouse. "Just
researching him was a really good experience for me," he said.
"I learned a lot about not just him, but the time that he lived
and the people that worked around him," said Ford. "So, I can't
even imagine being able to look at some of Dr. King's work. It
would be a really good opportunity and I think that if I had the
chance, I would really enjoy it."
Ford is correct in thinking some students would have limited
access, according to a leading professor and researcher of
history at Morehouse, Alton Hornsby Jr. "Collections of this
sort are very carefully guarded, and generally speaking, many of
the major collections are unavailable to undergraduates,"
Hornsby said.
Yet Hornsby recognized the research benefits of King's
writing for Morehouse students. He and others said Morehouse has
many scholars and serious students who would be eager to use
this opportunity to engage in scholarship.
"I would hope, as some of us on the faculty have tried, to
expose undergraduates to original research," he said. "It
enhances their academic composition while they are
undergraduates and it is a leg up once they are in graduate
school. I would hope that at some point that serious
upperclassmen doing serious research would be given access."
Morehouse College already houses the Howard Thurman and the
John and Lugenia Hope papers, among others, in a number of
locations.
The Thurman papers are in Sale Hall, the same building where
King once attended daily chapel. The Hope papers are in the
Robert W. Woodruff Library, which according to Massey, will be
the immediate home of the King papers.
The library serves the Atlanta University Center Consortium,
the world's largest and oldest consortium of historically black
colleges and universities: Clark Atlanta University, the
Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College,
Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College and Spelman
College.
This newest acquisition spurs the need for a single location
to house a more comprehensive archive, Massey said.
W. Hassan Marsh is a Black College Wire
intern at the Atlanta Voice.
Posted June 28, 2006 |
