ATLANTA, June 11 (UPI) -- Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young wants an extensive collection of Martin Luther King Jr.'s writings remain in Atlanta.
The documents go on public view in New York from June 21 through June 29 in preparation for a June 30 auction.
Sotheby's calls the collection -- most of which had been stored for years in the basement of the home of Coretta Scott King -- "the most important American archive of the 20th century in private hands," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Young, who marched with King during the civil rights movement, is backing the creation of a civil rights museum in Atlanta. He said housing the papers away from Atlanta would "rob the city of its heritage."
"This is a cheap city if it does not come up with enough money to keep that heritage here," Young told the newspaper.
Sotheby's says it hopes to fetch between $15 million and the collection's appraised value of $30 million. The documents, dating from 1946 to 1968, include an early draft of King's famous 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech and his notes on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
