Key Takeaways
- Christie’s will auction Martin Luther King Jr.’s seven-page handwritten draft of his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech on Jan. 22, 2027, with a potential price above $10 million.
- The draft omits “I have a dream”—King departed from his prepared text after Mahalia Jackson called out, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!”
- Civil rights activist Xernona Clayton kept the manuscript private for decades after finding it among her late husband’s belongings; proceeds will benefit charities including the King Center, and public exhibitions will visit Atlanta, Chicago, and New York before the auction.
The only known handwritten final draft of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech could sell for more than $10 million at auction. But there's a twist: The seven-page manuscript doesn't actually contain the words "I have a dream."
According to CBC News, the document, which recently resurfaced after decades in a desk drawer, captures King making last-minute revisions to his historic 1963 address. Now, more than 60 years after he delivered the speech at the March on Washington, the pages are headed to Christie's for a Jan. 22, 2027, auction.
Civil rights activist Xernona Clayton discovered the manuscript in the 1990s among the belongings of her late husband, Edward T. Clayton, King's longtime aide and speechwriter. Rather than reveal the find immediately, she returned it to the desk drawer, where it remained until she rediscovered it in 2024.
The 96-year-old, who was close to King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, said she initially resisted selling anything associated with the civil rights leader. "Now that I'm older, I'm wiser, and it just seems like something that important ought to be shared," she explained. Proceeds from the sale will benefit several charities, including the King Center in Atlanta.
The yellow pages offer an unusually intimate look at King as he prepares for one of the most consequential speeches in American history. Working late into the night before the Aug. 28, 1963, demonstration, King crossed out words, rewrote entire sentences, and continued refining his message until approximately 3 or 4 a.m.
Peter Klarnet, a manuscripts specialist at Christie's, told CBC that examining the document left him stunned. "I could not believe what I was looking at," he said, calling it more historically significant than other major manuscripts he has handled during his three-decade career.
Then there's the missing passage. Stanford University scholar Lerone Martin explained that King's advisers had discouraged him from revisiting his familiar dream-themed remarks, which he had previously delivered at other civil rights gatherings.
The phrase was absent from both the handwritten manuscript and the subsequent typed version.
But when gospel legend Mahalia Jackson called out, "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" during the speech, King departed from his prepared text.
The resulting passage became the defining moment of an address delivered before approximately 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C.
The discovery also comes as another landmark associated with King's legacy receives renewed attention. Earlier this year, Mason Temple in Memphis, where King delivered his final speech on April 3, 1968, was awarded $1.2 million in federal renovation funding.
During that address, King told supporters, "I've seen the Promised Land," while urging sanitation workers to strike. He was assassinated the following day at the Lorraine Motel. The Memphis preservation effort includes additional funding for Clayborn Temple, another site central to the 1968 sanitation strike.
Before the auction, King's manuscript will be exhibited in Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City. Martin hopes the winning bidder makes it available for public viewing rather than placing it in a private collection.
"I count this text as part of what we call American scripture," he told CBC.
