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Exhibition of MLK's speech edits opens in Atlanta

T.J. Warren of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, before a game yesterday in Minneapolis.
T.J. Warren of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, before a game yesterday in Minneapolis. Photo: David Berding/Getty Images

A new display of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers in Atlanta is a window inside the thoughts behind the civil rights leader's famous speeches, AP's Kate Brumbach writes.

Details: "The Meaning of Hope: The Best of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection," opened this weekend at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, in the Voice to the Voiceless gallery.

Drafts of typed and longhand speeches include:

  • King's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
  • "Beyond Vietnam" speeches
  • His eulogy for four girls who died when Ku Klux Klan members bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama
  • An already published copy of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" with further handwritten edits

Also included: "King’s school transcripts — including one from Crozer Theological Seminary where he got a C in public speaking," AP writes.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.