While sifting through material at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria earlier this year, Nick Gentry made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
There, among the collection belonging to John Melville Burgess, the first African American to lead an Episcopal diocese, was an original draft of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s seminal “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
Gentry, who served an internship at the seminary, said he thought he’d found a copy of an early draft of the document. But on further examination by seminary staff, it was determined it is an original draft.
“I was blown away,” Gentry, now a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Master of Library Sciences program, told WTOP. “I instantly recognized it as the ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail,’ but my first though was, ‘Oh, this must be a copy.’”
It wasn’t.
Later examined by Swann Galleries in New York City, it was verified to be an original draft. Swann sold a different draft of the letter in 2021.
The Virginia Theological Seminary plans to preserve the letter and display it for public view in the near future.
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On April 12, 1963, Dr. King was jailed in Alabama after leading protests against segregation. After reading an editorial from white clergy criticizing the demonstrations, King began writing a response on scraps of paper. It became his landmark “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a powerful call for direct, nonviolent action in the fight for Civil Rights.
“I wasn’t expecting to come across something that special as an original draft,” Gentry said.
It’s not the first time Gentry has discovered a rare document. Last year, while working at James Madison’s Gunston Hall, he discovered a little-known handwritten letter between Madison and George Washington.
“That’s what’s so fun about working in archives,” Gentry said. “You get to touch these special parts of history.”
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