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Lot 133
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MLK's Legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech - Advance Text Given to Press at 1963 March on Washington
MLK's Legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech - Advance Text Given to Press at 1963 March on Washington
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Martin Luther King, Jr.
Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963
MLK's Legendary "I Have a Dream" Speech - Advance Text Given to Press at 1963 March on Washington

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). "Advance Text of Speech To Be Delivered By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 3pp, 8.5" x 14", Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. Original mimeograph, run off by the March's Press Office between 4:00-7:00 a.m. on August 28th. Staple at top left corner. Some discoloration, the majority of which is on the first page. Minor edgewear. In near fine condition.

Although Martin Luther King had spent months working to ensure the success of the March, he didn't seriously turn to writing his speech until the night before, when he met with his key advisors at the Willard Hotel, around 8:00 p.m. By 10:00 p.m., Clarence Jones was sent upstairs to organize the notes he had taken, and to draft the speech. A little less than two hours later, Jones returned, and by midnight, King took the revised notes up to his room to finish. It was approximately 4:00 a.m. when he handed it in, and by 7:00 a.m., the press office had finished running off mimeograph copies for use in press kits.

People would wait for hours to hear Dr. King, but the two main organizers of the March, Bayard Rustin and A. Phillip Randolph, had to contend with leaders of more than a dozen Civil Rights organizations. Officially, Dr. King had the same 5-minute maximum as the other most prominent leaders; privately, Rustin and Randolph had agreed that Dr. King could go longer.

That morning, King and the other leaders met, lobbied Congress, sat for group photographs, greeted VIPs who had come from far and wide, and then had to rush back to get in front of the marchers who spontaneously started marching more than an hour early. Then, as the ceremonies began, they slipped out to a meeting right behind Lincoln's statue, to continue to wrestle with John Lewis, the 23-year old chairman of the SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, whose speech was considered too inflammatory. Lewis agreed to remove his reference to "patience" as a dirty word. If he hadn't, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Thomas O'Boyle, scheduled to give the invocation, threatened to pull out of the March entirely. We don't believe King's speech was "reviewed" at all. Leaving some time for crowd reaction, his three-page "Advance Text" was just the right length.

Watching different films of the speech, we can see that Dr. King would frequently glance down to the "Advance Text" until he arrived at the last paragraph. Just then, whether he consciously heard it or not, Mahalia Jackson called out, "Tell them about the dream, Martin." With hardly a pause, Dr. King looked up, and launched into "I Have a Dream." He didn't look down again until he had finished what has become known as one of the most legendary and influential speeches in American history.

It is fascinating to consider how the speech, as it was prepared, would have been received without the soaring oratory that he extemporaneously added. Even the shorter draft conveyed a powerful message, that America had defaulted on the promissory note of the Declaration of Independence – but that this nation could still rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." We hope that message still resonates today.

The Advance Speech Mimeograph – Census of Known Copies in Institutions:
-- Villanova University. On exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of African American History and Culture. This is the copy MLK had at the podium, and gave to George Raveling right after the speech.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. MLKPP.
-- Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Durham, N.C. Harry C. Boyte Family Papers.
-- The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, New York, N.Y. Wyatt Tee Walker Collection.
-- Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. Amistad Research Center.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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    Dimensions:
  • 8.5" x 14"
    • Artist Name:
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.

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