Researchers in Alexandria are uncovering a bit of history from Martin Luther King's time as a civil rights leader.
The red archival binder is tucked in a preservation box. Seminary archivist Denton Waits flips through the plasticine sleeves…
"What I'm holding here is a relatively recent discovery of an early draft of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's Letter from a Birmingham City Jail," Waits says.
The rare 11-page document from 1963 was discovered last month by an intern.
"What was your reaction when you saw this," reporter Michael Pope asks.
"I screamed," responds Riley Temple, curator of the African American Episcopal Historical Collection.
"And I think my hand was shaking actually, and then Denton began to say, 'Where did we get this?' And that's when the story emerged about the papers of the Right Reverend John Burgess," Temple says.
That would be the bishop of Massachusetts; the letter was discovered in his papers.
"For me, especially as a young Black woman, it was really powerful for me to get my hands on a document of someone saying why it's important to fight for justice and to pursue justice," says archives assistant Kayla Floyd.
The folks at the seminary plan on putting it on display at the Bishop Payne Library in Alexandria.
