MLK Jr. ‘I Have a Dream’ handwritten final draft to go on display for first time in Atlanta

A handwritten final draft of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech will go on public display in Atlanta before Christie’s New York auctions it for charity.

The 7-page draft will be displayed at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta Nov. 16-22. You can click here for tickets to the museum.

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Christie’s auction on Jan. 22, 2027 will benefit the Xernona Clayton Foundation and The King Center in Atlanta.

“It is poetic that the past will protect the future,” Martin Luther King III said.

“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 A. King said.

Xernona Clayton found the pages in the late 1990s in an envelope labeled “speech” inside a desk drawer with papers that belonged to her late husband, Edward T. Clayton, according to Christie’s.

Edward T. Clayton worked as head of public relations for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helped King with the speech.

Xernona Clayton said she didn’t know it was the only final manuscript draft when she found it. She put it back in the desk, where it stayed until 2024, when she looked again and rediscovered it.

“I’m just glad I looked in the drawer,” Clayton said.

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King finished writing the speech in his room at Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963. Later that morning, he gave the speech at the March on Washington to 250,000 people.

The draft does not include the words “I Have A Dream,” which King ad-libbed while delivering the speech. It does include the ending, “Free at last, free at last; thank God almighty, we are free at last.”

King’s children said they are grateful that the draft will

“It is poetic that the past will protect the future,” Martin Luther King III said.

“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 A. King said.

Christie’s said the manuscript is expected to bring more than $10 million.

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