Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers ProjectInitiated by The King Center in Atlanta, the King Papers Project is one of only a few large-scale research ventures focusing on an African American. In 1985 the King Center's founder and president Coretta Scott King invited Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson to become the Project's director. As a result of Dr. Carson's selection, the Project became a cooperative venture of Stanford University, the King Center, and the King Estate. It is now a component of Stanford's King Research and Education Institute.