She Opened A Drawer And Found History Inside — Martin Luther King Jr.’s Lost “I Have A Dream” Draft Heads To Auction

New York — The handwritten pages on which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 will go on exhibit at Christie’s New York beginning in January, before heading to auction.

King’s Handwritten “I Have a Dream” Draft To Go On Display Before Auction

The exhibit, titled “I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Draft,” will be held on 22 January, putting the seven yellow pages on display for a charity benefit. It will raise funding for several charitable organisations, including the Xernona Clayton Foundation and The King Center.

A Treasure Of American History

Christie’s manuscript specialist Peter Klarnet described his reaction on first seeing the pages.

“When I first saw these pages and realized what they were, I was astounded,” Peter Klarnet, Christie’s manuscript specialist, said in a statement. “This is a treasure of American history. It gives you chills to look at it.”

The handwritten speech is the only final draft that exists. It includes edits and phrases crossed out by King, and notably does not include the words “I have a dream,” which he spoke in the moment to 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington on 28 August 1963.

How The Draft Was Found

The final draft was discovered by civil rights leader and broadcast executive Xernona Clayton, wife of King’s head of public relations Edward T. Clayton, inside an envelope in her husband’s desk marked “Speech” in the late 1990s. Clayton later discovered it was the only final manuscript of the famous speech.

Reflecting on the discovery, she said:

“I’m just glad I looked in the drawer,” she said in a statement. “The two of them gelled with writing and words. They would go back and forth and there was such respect. Dr. King, who was a great thinker, said Ed was so good at getting his words on paper and putting them in the right place at the right time.”