Martin Luther King Jr. was planning a visit to the Soviet Union after surviving an assassination try, and his letter explaining his causes for the go to is up for grabs.

The famed civil rights chief was solely 2 months faraway from being stabbed at a e-book signing in Harlem when he wrote to the Nationwide Council of Church buildings, explaining his motivations behind a go to to the USSR.

MLK’s 1958 letter outlines 6 causes for the stopover, on his manner again from India, together with a need to research why Soviet residents have been nonetheless spiritual regardless of state-sponsored atheism.

Dr. King additionally instructed the Nationwide Council of Church buildings he needed to fulfill with Baptists within the communist nation to determine how Soviet insurance policies affected minorities.

One actually eye-opening a part of the letter is the value … MLK estimated the journey would price a whopping $35 per day for his lodges, trains, planes, interpreters, automobiles and chauffeurs. Yeah, completely different time — at the moment that will be about $370 per day.

The uncommon piece of MLK historical past goes up on the market by means of Moments In Time for $54,000 … after being saved for years by a non-public collector.

By the way in which, MLK ended up scrapping the journey a number of months later, for worry the Soviet go to can be seen as political.