eBay
auction sparks dispute
Dealer,
state battle for rare civil rights-era book
08/04/03
JOHN
ARCHIBALD
News staff writer
It
started as an auction, apparently innocent enough, on the Internet
site eBay.
Posted
for sale in mid-July were two booklets created in the early 1960s
by the Alabama Department of Public Safety's Investigative and Identification
Division, billed as "probably never seen before" Civil Rights
items obtained from a flea market. The books, volumes one and two
of "Individuals Active in Civil Disturbances," featured
mugshots, profiles and arrest records of persons involved in the Civil
Rights Movement.
The
seller put it this way: "If you were involved in the Civil Rights
Movement then there's a chance Montgomery had your picture and information
about you in these books. Both blacks and whites, from Dr. Martin
Luther King on down."
The
sale was enough to raise the interest of a rare book dealer in Birmingham.
It grabbed the attention of officials at the Alabama Department of
Archives and History. And, perhaps most importantly, spurred the Alabama
attorney general's office to action.
Birmingham
rare book dealer Patrick Cather comes from a long line of writers,
publishers and aficionados of books detailing Alabama's history. He
saw the booklets as quite a find, an example of how Alabama leaders
of the 1960s used state resources to battle those who would seek equal
rights. On the last day of the auction he put in the winning bid of
$177.50.
He
thought he had added another strong piece to his collection.
But
there had been another strong bidder. Tracey Berezansky, assistant
director for government records of the Alabama Department of Archives
and History, had tried to secure the booklets, but lost out to Cather
at the last moment.
The
end to the bidding did not end the story. Berezansky went to the Alabama
Attorney General's Office, and two days after the end of the auction
both Cather and the seller of the booklets received a letter from
Assistant Attorney General Alyce S. Robertson demanding that the works
be returned to the state.
"This
file should not have been removed from the custody of the State of
Alabama," the letter said. Moreover, this file is part of the
civil rights history of the state and should properly be transferred
to the State Department of Archives and History for the department
to make an appropriate determination as to where and how the records
should be maintained for public access."
Motives questioned:
Cather
was skeptical. He took the letter to an attorney, who advised him
that he likely could possess the records legally. They did not appear
to be "files" under the usual definition, but books printed
from metal plates using a standard printing process, he said. He was
prepared to fight, but the seller was not. The seller, from Woodville,
backed out of the sale after receiving the same letter from Robertson.
Cather
said he was concerned for two reasons. First, he believes the booklets
tell an important part of Alabama history that should be shared with
historians and the public, he said. Second, he believes the state
resorted to strong-arm tactics to take the documents after losing
a seemingly above-board auction.
"Either
scenario is not pretty," he said. "They intimidated me by
threatening legal action. I'm just concerned. State and local governments
have a long history of preferring to hide skeletons in the closet
rather than to address them."
But
Berezansky and Robertson say Cather is off-base in his assumptions.
They said the state learned of the booklets after hearing about the
auction and decided to try to obtain them in the quickest, most painless
way: by bidding.
Berezansky
said the state did not know the booklets were missing, or even that
they were ever created. When she was told of the auction she consulted
Robertson, who attempted to stop it by sending the seller a letter.
When the letter went unanswered, Berezansky bid on the documents.
"Fifteen
seconds before the end of the auction the winning bidder swooped in
and won," Berezansky said. "I consulted with the attorney
general's office and they drafted a letter asking that they be returned
to the custody of the state."
She
said the seller, who was not identified by name, cooperated and backed
out of the sale, promising to send the booklets back to the state.
The seller will be paid, Berezansky said.
She
said the booklets will be made available to the public, but added
that "I want to review them to make sure there is not anything
libelous or slanderous that may harm the individuals" listed
in the book.
Both
Berezansky and Robertson say the booklets belong to the state and
should be returned. They cite Alabama law that says all public officers
must turn over to their successors all current books, papers and documents
pertaining to the business, affairs or transaction of their office.
When those books or documents cease to be current, they are to be
delivered to the Department of Archives and History.
Berezansky
said this was the first time she has bid on eBay to obtain such documents.
"We
wanted to cover our bases and we wanted to return it to state custody,"
she said. "This was an opportunity to return it."
Cather,
who said he has never bought or dealt in any illegal or questionable
material, said the books were apparently distributed to political
appointees of former Gov. George Wallace, as well as to law enforcement
officials. And while the cover of the book is marked "confidential,"
that doesn't make it so, he said. "I think the courts and the
public would place little stock in that 40 years after the fact,"
he said.
Truth
commissions in other states have required such information to be made
public in an effort to reconcile the sins of the past, he said. Alabama
citizens deserve the same.
In
that, he should get his wish, said Joy Patterson, spokeswoman for
the Alabama attorney general's office.
"He
lost it," Patterson said of the book. "But it was recovered
for all the citizens of Alabama to see."
