MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech draft to be auctioned for $10 million

A piece of history may soon fetch millions at auction. The only known handwritten final draft of Rev. Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech is set to go to Christie’s auction house in New York next year, with expectations that the seven-page manuscript could sell for more than $10 million. Written in blue ink on yellow legal pad paper, the document preserves King’s final edits before he delivered the landmark address during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

The manuscript contains revisions and crossed-out lines, offering a rare look at the civil rights leader’s preparation for one of the most significant speeches in American history. Notably, King’s famous “I Have a Dream” line does not appear in the handwritten draft. He added that phrase spontaneously while speaking, inspired by the crowd and by gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.

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

“It captures a moment that literally changed the course of our nation and makes it very real and very human. It’s an honor and privilege that Christie’s has an opportunity to present it to the world.” Xernona Clayton, a 96-year-old pioneering broadcaster and civil rights activist, found the draft in the late 1990s inside the desk drawer of her late husband, Edward T. Clayton, one of King’s longtime aides and speechwriters.

She later came across the manuscript again in 2024. After keeping the document private for decades, Clayton decided it was finally time to let the public see it. “Now that I’m older, I’m wiser, and it just seems like something that important ought to be shared,” Clayton told CBC Radio-Canada.

The sale will support several charitable organizations, including Atlanta’s King Center and the Xernona Clayton Foundation. The auction is being handled through the Still Marching Irrevocable Charitable Unitrust, which Clayton created to direct the proceeds toward charitable causes. Before the auction, the manuscript will be exhibited at Atlanta’s National Center for Civil and Human Rights in mid-November.

It will then travel to Chicago before reaching Christie’s New York exhibition space, where it will be on public view from Jan. 15 to 21, 2027.