From the Feb. 20, 2015, Chicago Tribune "LBJ letter to King's widow up for auction" by Ian Shapira, the Washington Post.
It was written April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. And it was sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Coretta Scott King to express his condolences and determination to find the murderer.
"We will overcome this calamity," he wrote. She kept it until 2003 when she gave it to her husband's confidant, singer Harry Belafonte.
But he considered auctioning it in 2008, shortly before Coretta King died and King's three children objected and it wasn't.
But now, it is slated to be auctioned again. Belafonte gifted the letter to his half-sister and brother-in-law who figured it was a good time to sell it because of all the 50 anniversary of the Civil Rights movement going on these days. The minimum bid is $60,000.
They seem to be a bit too money-oriented and should have gifted it or sold it for a low price to the Civil Rights museum in Memphis.
A followup in March in Reuters said it sold for $60,000 to an online bidder, but auctioneers had been expecting twice as much as I am sure Belafonte's relatives were as well. Too bad, a piece of American history gone.
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