Hidden in a dusty trunk in an abandoned and looted Englewood home, the papers of Harvard's first black graduate, Richard T. Greener, had long been thought lost to history. (snip)

Several museums and Harvard University itself expressed a keen interest in the historically significant 140-year-old Greener documents. An excited Gates, who leads Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African-American Research, even said the discovery gave him "gooseflesh."

But now McDonald says the irreplaceable collection could go up in flames - literally.

McDonald - who recently sold just two of the documents for $52,000 to the University of South Carolina, where Greener also studied and taught - is threatening to torch the rest unless Harvard offers him more cash.