Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040241
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

EDUCATOR SAYS SCHOOL MUST KEEP KING'S FILE

Silber said King's widow didn't contest the school's claim until 1985. Coretta Scott King testified earlier in her lawsuit that she was unaware the school planned to claim the papers until then.

Silber said he told her in 1985 that the school had a "moral obligation" to retain the papers because it was her husband's wish.

"We thought it quite appropriate to think that, upon his death, Martin Luther King, like Lincoln, belonged to the ages," Silber said.

He disputed Coretta Scott King's characterization of his behavior at their December 1985 meeting as "hostile."

She testified Silber cut her off without listening to her and demanded that all remaining King papers be turned over to the school.

After years of negotiations, she hopes to force the university to give the papers to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

In 1964 and 1965, the civil rights leader deposited about 83,000 papers at the school, where he had obtained his doctorate in theology, for safekeeping. He also signed a document giving the school possession if he died.

Silber said there was no evidence that King changed his mind.

Coretta Scott King testified that her husband did change his mind, and wanted the papers returned to the South, but never got around to writing to the school before his assassination in 1968.

Her testimony was supported by a sworn statement from Harry Wachtel, a New York lawyer who represented King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.