By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn.
(AP) -- Stephon Tull was looking through dusty old boxes in his
father's attic in Chattanooga a few months ago when he stumbled onto
something startling: an audio reel labeled, "Dr. King interview, Dec.
21, 1960."

He wasn't sure what he had until he
borrowed a friend's reel-to-reel player and listened to the recording
of his father interviewing Martin Luther King Jr. for a book project
that never came to fruition. In clear audio, King discusses the
importance of the civil rights movement, his definition of nonviolence
and how a recent trip of his to Africa informed his views. Tull said the
recording had been in the attic for years, and he wasn't sure who other
than his father may have heard it.

"No words
can describe. I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press this
week in a phone interview from his home in Chattanooga. "I found ... a
lost part of history."

Many recordings of King
are known to exist among hundreds of thousands of documents related to
his life that have been catalogued and archived. But one historian said
the newly discovered interview is unusual because there's little audio
of King discussing his activities in Africa, while two of King's
contemporaries said it's exciting to hear a little-known recording of
their friend for the first time.

Tull plans to offer the recording at a private sale arranged by a New York broker and collector later this month.

Tull
said his father, an insurance salesman, had planned to write a book
about the racism he encountered growing up in Chattanooga and later as
an adult. He said his dad interviewed King when he visited the city, but
never completed the book and just stored the recording with some other
interviews he had done. Tull's father is now in his early 80s and under
hospice care.

During part of the interview, King defines nonviolence and justifies its practice.

"I
would ... say that it is a method which seeks to secure a moral end
through moral means," he said. "And it grows out of the whole concept of
love, because if one is truly nonviolent that person has a loving
spirit, he refuses to inflict injury upon the opponent because he loves
the opponent."

The interview was made four
years before the Civil Rights Act became law, three years before King's
famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and eight years before his
assassination. At one point in the interview, King predicts the impact
of the civil rights movement.

"I am convinced
that when the history books are written in future years, historians will
have to record this movement as one of the greatest epochs of our
heritage," he said.

King had visited Africa
about a month before the interview, and he discusses with Tull's father
how leaders there viewed the racial unrest in the United States.

"I
had the opportunity to talk with most of the major leaders of the new
independent countries of Africa, and also leaders in countries that are
moving toward independence," he said. "And I think all of them agree
that in the United States we must solve this problem of racial injustice
if we expect to maintain our leadership in the world."

Raymond
Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Maryland's
Morgan State University, said the tape is significant because there are
very few recordings of King detailing his activity in Africa.

"It's
clear that in this tape when he's talking ... about Africa, he saw this
as a global human rights movement that would inspire other
organizations, other nations, other groups around the world," said
Winbush, who is also a psychologist and historian.

"That to me is what's remarkable about the tape."

U.S.
Rep. John Lewis, a Freedom Rider and lunch counter protester who worked
with King while a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, said hearing King talk about the sit-ins took him back to the
period when more than 100 restaurant counters were desegregated over
several months.

"To ... hear his voice and
listen to his words was so moving, so powerful," said Lewis, adding that
King's principles of nonviolence are still relevant today.

"I wish people all over America, all over the world, can hear this message over and over again," he said.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, agreed.

"I
can't think of anything better to try," Lowery said of nonviolence.
"What we're doing now is not working. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth. Matching violence with violence. We've got more guns than we've
ever had, and more ammunition to go with it. And yet, the situation
worsens."

A spokeswoman for King's daughter
Bernice, head of The King Center in Atlanta, said she was traveling and
couldn't comment on the audio.

Tull is working
with a New York-based collector and expert on historical artifacts to
arrange a sale. The broker, Keya Morgan, said he believes that
unpublished reel-to-reel audio of King is extremely rare and said he's
confident of the authenticity of the recording based on extensive
interviews with Tull, his examination of the tape and his knowledge of
King. He's collected many of the civil rights icon's letters and photos.

"I
was like, wow! To hear him that crisp and clear," Morgan said. "But
beyond that, for him to speak of nonviolence, which is what he
represented."