Lost MLK Interview Discovered in Attic

Martin Luther King Jr. talks about his time in Africa in new audio
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 22, 2012 8:54 AM CDT
Lost MLK Interview Discovered in Attic
In this 1960 file photo, Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Atlanta.   (AP File Photo)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the civil rights movement, nonviolence, and his work in Africa in a newly discovered audio interview found in a Chattanooga attic. Stephon Tull found the audio reel labeled "Dr. King interview, Dec. 21, 1960" in his father's house, borrowed a reel-to-reel player, and heard his father interviewing King. "No words can describe. I couldn't believe it," Tull tells the AP. "I found ... a lost part of history."

Though there are many recordings of King, a historian says this one is important because he discusses his time in Africa—a subject not raised in much of the audio that exists. African leaders "agree that in the United States we must solve this problem of racial injustice if we expect to maintain our leadership in the world," King says in the recording. Tull's father, an insurance salesman, interviewed King for a book he was planning to write—but never did—about racism he encountered in his life. Click for more King quotes from the recording, which Tull plans to sell. (More Martin Luther King Jr. stories.)

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