A handwritten draft of Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic 'I have a dream' speech has been unearthed from a desk drawer and made public for the first time in six decades. One of the most prominent leaders of the American civil rights movement, King delivered the rousing speech to more than 250,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.
The night before the speech, King stayed up alone in his hotel room, scribbling notes in his yellow notepad. The numerous corrections and deletions offer a glimpse into King's creative process as he crafted what was arguably the most consequential oration of his career.
The seven-page document is the only known copy of King's final draft of the speech before he sent it to be typed the following morning. It is believed that he was still perfecting the prose until 3 or 4 am.
The pages show words, or sometimes entire sentences, scratched out in blue pen and rewritten. One page has a small brown smudge, possibly a coffee stain.
The draft will be on display in Atlanta, Chicago and New York City before being put up for auction on Jan. 22, 2027, when it is expected to fetch upwards of Rs 93.9 crore ($10 million).
Who Discovered The Draft?
The speech draft was discovered in the papers of Edward T. Clayton, one of King's speechwriters and advisors. Edward's wife, Xernona Clayton, found the pages tucked in an envelope labelled "speech" nestled among other papers in a desk. Xernona understood that it was an important document related to the now-iconic speech, but had no idea it was the final manuscript,
In 2024, she shared the pages with her financial manager, who worked with the Christie's auction house team to identify it as the only known handwritten final draft of the famous speech.
“I'm just glad I looked at the drawer. Now, the world will have the opportunity to see those words of wisdom that continue to inspire hope, freedom and the pursuit of equality," Xernona told The New York Times.
Peter Klarnet, a manuscripts specialist at Christie's, who has previously handled letters from Albert Einstein and the US founding fathers, said nothing compares to the draft of King's speech.
"I have never had the privilege and the honour to handle something so universally important, not just to our nation's history but to world history," said Klarnet.
Interestingly, neither the original, handwritten pages nor the printed copy mention the speech's most iconic "I have a dream" line. The phrase, along with much of the speech's second half, was improvised after gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to King, “Tell ‘em about the ‘dream.'”
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