When Martin Luther King Jr. became the first Georgian and youngest person in history to win a Nobel Peace Prize, he beat out a list of 43 others, including Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and the man who would later sign into law many of the causes he championed, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
For the first time on American soil, the National Park Service’s Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site will present a trove of formerly classified documents detailing the process of how King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
The full exhibit debuted earlier this year at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, where since 1964, all the documents relating to the award – including nominations, notes and reports – have been classified and kept in the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s extensive archive.
According to a statement released by the Nobel Peace Center: “For the first time we now have access to all this material and the documents reveal who nominated Dr King, how the Nobel Committee considered him and who were his keenest rivals for the prize.”
The Olso exhibition also tells the story of what happened when King came to Sweden to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. The American version will also tell the story of what happened when King returned to Atlanta and how the city honored him.
“This is a continuation of that history,” said Judy Forte, superintendent of the King National Historic Site, as she watched workers feverishly put together the museum exhibit that will open Wednesday afternoon. “We are always learning new things about him, and this is one of the most exciting things we have ever done.”
Unless leaked, Nobel documents are classified for 50 years, meaning that it has never been officially known who nominated King for the Nobel Peace Prize, or who his competition was.
He was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers); and by eight members of the Swedish Parliament and according to the documents, King was one of 13 finalists out of 44 international nominees.
“He beat Johnson. He beat William Tubman, the president of Liberia,” said Joy Kinard, acting chief of interpretation at the King Historic Site. “This Baptist Preacher from Atlanta who went to Morehouse. That shows the power of the black community and the power of his message. It showed what you can do if you are unselfish and try your best to stand up for what is right.”
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