Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King Jr I Have a Dream Speech Text Signed by Coretta Scott King Following the March on Washington 1963

Coretta Scott King

Manuscript & Autographs

King, Martin Luther, Jr. I Have a Dream Speech. 1963 text of Martin Luther King Jr.’s address delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, signed by Coretta Scott King. The speech articulated the central moral and political demands of the Civil Rights Movement during a national campaign for desegregation, voting rights, and federal civil rights legislation. The text reproduces the most widely quoted passage in which King declared that the nation must “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.’” The excerpt continues through the sequence of statements envisioning racial equality across the United States, including the call for reconciliation “on the red hills of Georgia,” the transformation of Mississippi from “sweltering with the heat of injustice” into “an oasis of freedom and justice,” and the hope that children would one day be judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Souvenir typescript headed “I Have a Dream Speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” reproducing a substantial portion of the speech’s central “I have a dream” refrain, concluding with the line describing a future in which “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Signed in ink by Coretta Scott King. Single page measuring approximately 7 x 8.5 inches.

The March on Washington drew more than two hundred thousand participants to the Lincoln Memorial and marked one of the largest public demonstrations in American history in support of civil and economic rights for African Americans. King’s address became the defining oration of the event and one of the most influential speeches in modern American political history. In the months following the demonstration King was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1963 and in 1964 became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The most famous “I have a dream” passage delivered during the speech was not part of the prepared manuscript King brought to the podium, a circumstance that later contributed to the speech’s historical interest as a moment of partially extemporaneous civil rights oratory. Light handling wear with two horizontal mailing folds. Overall condition very good.

Item #5176

Price: $880.00