GUEST: My husband is an avid collector. And he was able to get this from a collection in Durham, and it shows when he visited St. Mark's AME Zion Church in Durham. And he was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and this is from their conference when they were here in Raleigh in 1966. And along with that, he was able to acquire the book from the same collection.
APPRAISER: Well, that's what's so fantastic is that it comes from the period. It's direct from 1966, when the visit occurred. This was at the apex of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ascendency in his importance as a cultural leader.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And what I think is really terrific about the dust jacket on this book is its pristine condition. With all modern literature, whether it's a historical book or a piece of fiction, collectors care about the preservation of the dust jacket. And it's just immaculate. What makes this even more special is the fact that it has been signed.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: It's been signed on the front free endpaper. And because it was signed at the time of these others, we are very confident that the signature is authentic.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: In terms of value, the book is going to be worth about $2,000 to $3,000, since it's signed. Unsigned, they bring in the low hundreds. As an archive, I would give it a premium value and therefore say that everything together is in the $3,000 to $4,000 range, and that's an auction value.
GUEST: Wow, my husband is going to be really excited.
APPRAISER: Oh, terrific.
