Luther King's children for documents his mother, Maude Ballou
(right with King)obtained while working as King's secretary during
the 1950s and 60s. Ballou's attorney has said the King Estate has
no right to those items.
JACKSON – The estate of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against a television news
anchor at WLBT in Jackson claiming that he has documents taken from
the slain civil rights leader by a former employee, the anchor’s
mother.
The lawsuit, which seeks possession of the papers, was
filed Sept. 21 against Howard Nelson Ballou in U.S. District Court
in Jackson.
WLBT said Maude Ballou was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal
secretary when he led the Montgomery Improvement Association in
Alabama. They worked together for several years, and Mrs. Ballou
helped Dr. King establish his Southern Christian Leadership
Conference office in Atlanta in 1960.
The two maintained a trusting professional relationship and a
handwritten inscription on a book authored by Dr. King reads: “To
my dear friends Maude and Leonard, whose friendship I will always
cherish very deeply.” Leonard is Maude’s late husband, WLBT
said.
During her employment, Mrs. Ballou wrote letters on Dr. King’s
behalf, and he also corresponded with her through letters at
times
The lawsuit filed by King’s estate claims Mrs. Ballou wrongfully
kept those documents.
King’s estate is a Georgia corporation and is operated as a
private company by his children Martin III, Bernice and Dexter.
They’ve fought others – and recently, each other – for control of
the King brand, including suing media companies that used his “I
Have a Dream” speech.
Attorneys for the estate say in court papers that the letters,
photographs and other items are worth more than $75,000, though the
exact value is not clear.
The documents described in court records include a sermon; a
statement King made the day after a landmark Supreme Court ruling
on segregation; and a handwritten letter to Ballou’s mother, Maude
Ballou, from civil rights icon Rosa Parks. The material also is
thought to contain photographs.
“These documents and items are not only rare and irreplaceable,
but of great value and historical importance as well,” the lawsuit
says.
Ballou, who works as news anchor for Jackson television station
WLBT, referred questions to his attorney, Robert Gibbs.
Gibbs said he was contacted in July by the estate’s lawyer with
inquiries about the materials, which first came into the possession
of the Ballou family decades ago. However, Gibbs said there was no
negotiation about giving the items back and the lawsuit came as a
surprise.
Gibbs said Ballou’s parents were both personal friends of King
and his wife, Coretta Scott King.
“I don’t know if the items they’ve listed are in Howard’s
possession. What I do know is that Mrs. Ballou received a number of
items from Dr. King and Mrs. King and those are rightfully her
items,” Gibbs said. “These are her documents. We’re going to do
whatever we can to make sure they remain her documents,” Gibbs told
WLBT.
The estate’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to
messages.
The lawsuit says that after working for King, Ballou’s parents
went to work at what is now Elizabeth City State University in
North Carolina, where Leonard Ballou was as an archivist.
Leonard Ballou apparently stored the material in the
university’s basement, unbeknownst to anyone, until it was
discovered by the university in 2007 and returned to the Ballou
family, the lawsuit said. The suit says the university contacted
Howard Ballou about taking possession of the material because his
father was deceased.
The estate’s attorneys said in court records that it first
learned of the documents in 2010 when a newspaper wrote about
them.
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