NEW YORK CITY – An early draft of Martin Luther King’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” sold far above the high estimate at Swann Galleries’ annual African American sale on March 25. The letter, a possibly unique prepublication draft, sold for $185,000. On April 12, 1963, King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, were arrested following non-violent demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala. In the letter, responding to local white clergymen’s call for demonstrators to seek redress through the courts, King made the case for civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws.

The sale was strong throughout, with photographs and letters of theatrical personalities, examples of modern literature by Black writers, early slavery and abolition items, as well as other protest material, all bringing higher than expected prices. Estimates were almost meaningless as buyers competed for choice items.

A full report will follow.