This, however, was not the case at all. Once I walked in, I didn't go straight to my phone and start playing Angry Birds. The lecturer, Dr. Crawford from Morehouse College, was already talking about a topic about Dr. King that I've never heard about: his papers. To think that Dr. King had thousands of papers containing his thoughts and ideas really made me appreciate his ideas and their fruition much more. Dr. Crawford showed several examples of his writings, which contained typos and many scratched off words, on different surfaces like tissue paper and the back of documents. She went on to discuss the importance we should put on Dr. King's ideas rather than Dr. King himself.
However, this collection of papers isn't the only one. Dr. Crawford mentioned that Dr. King also donated a set of papers to Boston University. Although these papers only accounted for his life until 1964, they combined with the King Collection at Morehouse give a comprehensive look into Dr. King's evolution into civil rights and theologically-based speeches. One great example Dr. Crawford gave of this evolution is Dr. King's rejection letter to Howard's President Mordecai Johnson stating how he could not work here while he still had unfinished business in the south.
It is rare to have newfound respect for someone you already know much about. This lecture unveiled a new way for me to find more about Dr. King from the man himself. Once students and the public have access to the digitized collection of Dr. King from Morehouse, it will open many interesting new doors for historical research into one of the most influential men in the 20th century: Martin Luther King Jr.
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