Martin Luther King Jr.’s children called the new National Museum of African American History and Culture with an intriguing invitation. They wanted to display King’s traveling Bible and Nobel Peace Prize, but the museum curator passed on the items, placing them back in the bank vault. King’s children have entered into several legal battles over the last twenty years with close friends and each other. Consequently, it seems to come at no surprise that museums will not display an item given or loaned by the King family. Their reputation for being difficult and litigious is off-putting for most museum leaders, making it difficult to enjoy his legacy.
See Geoff Edgers, Why No Major Martin Luther King Jr. Artifacts Will Be at the New African American Museum, Washington Post, September 11, 2016.
Special thanks to Richard E. Mattersdorff (Attorney, El Paso, Texas) for bringing this article to my attention.
