Unprecedented Martin Luther King Jr. Artifact Sells For $130,000

Caption

Martin Luther King Jr.'s autograph tops a page from the Birmingham jail logbook when the civil rights leader was receiving items while jailed. The log pages went up for auction in February 2021.

Credit: Hake's Auctions

Historical records from a Birmingham, Ala., jail containing 12 rare autographs of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. sold at auction for more than $130,000.

King had been arrested in Alabama in April 1963 for leading a march to protest racial segregation.

It was during this time when King wrote his manifesto on nonviolent civil disobedience “Letter from A Birmingham Jail.” 

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” King wrote from behind bars in 1963. His letter was smuggled out and stirred the world by explaining why Black people couldn’t keep waiting for fair treatment.

At the jail, items showed up for the civil rights hero. He signed for them in a logbook. First was a letter.

A couple days later, "He got a Western Union telegram,” Hake's Auctions Americana Specialist Scott Mussell pointed out, holding up an aged piece of paper ripped from the logbook. “And then on this side of the page, is where he had to put an “x” down, and then he would have to sign it.”

"Every time I sit and think about it for any amount of time, all the hair on my arms stands up," Mussell said. "Straight up."

The four pages sold at auction came from the logbook of the Birmingham jail. 

Hake's Auctions officials said the family that sold the pages said a relative who worked at the Birmingham jail was ordered to throw out the logbook, but the relative kept it instead.

WorthPoint CEO Will Seippel said he felt about the same, after his skepticism wore off. In 2019, out of the blue, his help desk got a call. Seippel’s company helps people figure out how much their items are worth. An anonymous woman asked Seippel to research the potential value of her family's unique possession.

"It's like, 'Oh, yeah, right. And I found the Holy Grail,'” Seippel joked.

He sought help from a signature authenticator in California, and another expert from Australia. He flew in the woman's family to his company's office in Sandy Springs, Ga., just outside King’s hometown of Atlanta. They carefully handled the four pages with gloves.

"You're looking at a piece of history from one of the most remarkable civil rights events,” Seippel said.

It gave him goosebumps.

"It's just so incredible that something from that moment got saved,” he said.

Hake's Auctions officials said the items had stayed in the family of the jailer, until now.

Hake's Auctions had been collecting bids for nearly a month. It ultimately sold for $130,909.28.