There is an interesting piece in today’s Birmingham News about a piece of history that was auctioned on Ebay, but the seller was apparently strong-armed to sell the item to the state Department of Archives and History. The item was a book containing information on leaders of the civil rights movement, that was apparently compiled and used by state law enforcement officials. The man who won the auction was a Birmingham book dealer named Patrick Cather. He received a strongly worded letter from an assistant state attorney general encouraging him to return the item to the state.
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.
Certainly, at the very least, citizens must be vigilant to ensure that these records are made available to the public. The more concerning thing is that if the Department of Archives and History did not know these items existed, what other records are floating around out there that never made it to the archives?