FALLS CHURCH, Va. – On Thursday, March 12, Quinn’s Auction Galleries will offer to the highest bidder one of the most significant documents in US history – the letter President Lyndon Baines Johnson wrote to Coretta Scott King on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of her husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This auction was originally scheduled for March 5 but was postponed because of a winter storm.
In the hand-signed, typewritten letter on White House stationery, Johnson begins by saying: “My thoughts have been with you and your children throughout this long and anguished day. Tonight Mrs. Johnson and I pray again that God gives you the solace of His strength.”
Johnson goes on to say that he has been devoting himself to “honoring [Dr. King] in the manner he would most approve…by word, deed and official act – to unite this sorrowing and troubled nation against further and wider violence…We will overcome this calamity and continue the work of justice and love that is Martin Luther King’s legacy and trust to us.”
The six-paragraph letter concludes: “All of us ask God to comfort you now and restore your compassionate influence to us.”
The Presidential letter was kept by Mrs. King until 2003, when she gave it to singer Harry Belafonte, who had been active in the civil rights movement throughout his life and was a close confidante of the slain leader.
Belafonte later gifted the letter to his half-sister, Shirley, and her husband Stoney Cooks, who are the consignors to Quinn’s March 5 auction.
“It’s not at all surprising that Harry Belafonte, who is now 87 years of age, felt Shirley and Stoney Cooks were the right stewards for the letter,” said Matthew Quinn, vice president of Quinn’s Auction Galleries. “Both Shirley and Stoney have been lifelong civil rights activists. Shirley is an ex-chief of staff to three members of Congress and was a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department. Stoney, who was a staff member with Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was at the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. After the assassination, he was asked by Reverend A.D. King [MLK’s brother] to stay by the coffin and guard it during the public viewing and wake at Sisters Chapel at Spelman College. Stoney was definitely part of Dr. King’s trusted inner circle.” A newspaper photo shows Stoney Cooks dusting off the glass-covered casket during the service.
Cooks is a longtime collector of objects pertaining to the civil rights movement and has had a 20-year association with Quinn’s Auction Galleries, both as a buyer and seller.
“But we never expected to be given the privilege of selling such an important historical document,” said Quinn. “It’s an honor and a privilege just to be in the presence of this letter … it could very well end up in a museum or other institution where it might forever remain behind glass. That is what Shirley and Stoney Cooks hope will happen – that it will end up in a place where the public will be able to see it.”
The letter is accompanied by three relevant press releases: a Presidential Declaration ordering April 7, 1968 as a national day of mourning, a “Statement by the President,” and a “Statement of the President on the Death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [in] The Fish Room.”
Entered in the auction as Lot 125, the letter and accompanying press releases are expected to sell as a group for $120,000-$180,000. “But there’s no way of knowing what its value is to historians, collectors or museums,” Quinn said. “The letter can’t be compared to anything else that has sold in the past. It’s unique.”
To contact Quinn’s, call 703-532-5632 or email info@quinnsauction.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog for Quinn’s March 12 auction and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
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