Ammon News - An original handwritten draft of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s historic 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech was found in a former aide’s desk and will soon be up for auction.

The seven-page draft was discovered in Edward T. Clayton’s desk drawer, and was handwritten on a piece of yellow paper with visible corrections to be sent to a typist, The New York Times reported. Clayton’s widow, Xernona Clayton, permitted the document, currently the only known draft of the famous speech, to be auctioned off at Christie’s in January 2027, where it is expected to earn upwards of $10 million.

The speech was delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C., during the March on Washington. The speech marked a turning point in the U.S. Civil Rights movement, which culminated with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under then-President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the King Center, per the outlet. Other proceeds will be donated to charities of Xernona’s choosing.

Xernona also worked with King to desegregate Atlanta’s hospitals in the 1960s, and became one of the first Black local talk show hosts in the 1970s, before helping establish the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta and founding the Trumpet Awards, per The Times. She offered the document to the auction house through the Still Marching Irrevocable Charitable Unitrust.

“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,” Dr. Bernice King, King’s daughter and the CEO of The King Center, said in a statement to Christie’s.

“This is the most important manuscript I’ve ever had the honor to handle,” Peter Klarnet, Christie’s manuscript specialist, told The Times. “I can’t imagine anything better.” He paused, before adding, “That I wouldn’t have to steal out of the National Archives.”

A photo shared by the auction house shows King’s cursive handwriting in blue ink, with several lines crossed out and rewritten.

“When they called me, I was almost in disbelief,” Lerone A. Martin, the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford and the senior editor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, told The Times. “It’s almost like it gives us a chance to get between King’s ears, to get in his mind.”

Before the manuscript goes up for auction, it will be on public display at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta from Nov. 16 to Nov. 22. It will then move to Chicago at a later date.

News of the discovery of the document comes shortly after the late MLK Jr.’s only grandchild, Yolanda Renee King, voted in her first election.

In a Nov. 3 joint Instagram post with When We All Vote, a nonprofit seeking to increase voter participation in elections, she shared a snap of herself sporting an “I voted” sticker after heading to the polls. Additional photos showed her walking to and from the polling place with her parents and holding out the sticker proudly.

“My grandparents had their fight. My parents had theirs. This one is mine. People bled for this right. I’m not going to waste it,” Yolanda said in the post’s caption.


People