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MLK's Handwritten 'I Have a Dream' Final Draft to Make Public Debut in Atlanta Before $10M Auction
The only known handwritten final draft of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech will be displayed at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta from Nov. 16-22 before Christie's auctions it in January to benefit The King Center and the Xernona Clayton Foundation.
ATLANTA â A rare piece of civil rights history will soon be visible to the public in Atlanta for the first time. The only known handwritten final draft of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech will be displayed at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights from Nov. 16 through Nov. 22, before it heads to auction in New York.
The seven-page manuscript, written in King's own hand, was discovered in the late 1990s by civil rights activist Xernona Clayton inside an envelope marked "speech" in a desk drawer belonging to her late husband, Edward T. Clayton. Edward Clayton served as head of public relations for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assisted King with the speech. Xernona Clayton said she did not realize at the time that it was the only final manuscript draft, and she placed it back in the drawer, where it remained until she rediscovered it in 2024.
"I'm just glad I looked in the drawer," Clayton said.
King completed the draft in his room at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963, the same morning he delivered the address to a crowd of 250,000 people at the March on Washington. Notably, the draft does not contain the words "I Have a Dream," which King ad-libbed during the speech. It does include the closing lines: "Free at last, free at last; thank God almighty, we are free at last."
Christie's New York will auction the manuscript on Jan. 22, 2027, with proceeds benefiting the Xernona Clayton Foundation and The King Center in Atlanta. The auction house estimates the draft will sell for more than $10 million.
Members of King's family expressed gratitude that the document will support the institutions' work. "It is poetic that the past will protect the future," said Martin Luther King III. Dr. Bernice A. King added, "We are also grateful to join with Ms. Clayton to ensure that the sale of this draft helps support the great work of The King Center and our mother, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who would be 100 this upcoming year."
The public exhibition offers Atlanta residents and visitors a rare opportunity to see a foundational document of the civil rights movement up close before it passes into private hands. Tickets for the museum are available through its website.