King papers go public

ATLANTA, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A significant portion of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers went public in Atlanta Tuesday, officials said.

The documents have been digitized and cataloged and are available at the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The newspaper said the King papers represent more than 75 percent of a 10,000-item collection bought in 2006 from King's family.

Mayor Shirley Franklin and former Mayor Andrew Young spearheaded the effort to raise $32 million for the purchase, which included many of King's speeches and personal writings from 1946 to 1968.

King scholar Clayborne Carson, founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, has been named executive director of the papers and distinguished professor at Morehouse College.

"I want to do everything I can to encourage more research and better research, not only on Martin Luther King but on the people who were alongside him in his life," Carson said.