JACKSON, Miss. — The estate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against a television news anchor in Mississippi claiming that he has documents taken from the slain civil rights leader by a former employee, the anchor’s mother.

The lawsuit, which seeks possession of the papers, was filed Wednesday against Howard Nelson Ballou in U.S. District Court in Jackson. It says Ballou’s mother worked for King as a secretary from 1955 to 1960 and kept documents during the time King led the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

King’s estate is a Georgia corporation and is operated as a private company by his children. They’ve fought others for control of the King brand, including suing media companies that used his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Attorneys for the estate say in court papers that the letters, photographs and other items are worth more than $75,000, though the exact value is not clear.

The documents described in court records include a sermon; a statement King made the day after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on segregation; and a handwritten letter to Ballou’s mother, Maude Ballou, from civil rights icon Rosa Parks. The material also is thought to contain photographs.