Martin Luther King Jr’s original ‘I have a dream’ speech is now on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is open in observance of Martin Luther King Jr day

Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 17 Jan 2022

King delivered the iconic speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963 Credit: AP1962
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has opened today on January 17 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr day, with King’s original “I have a dream” speech now on display at the institution.
The iconic speech from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom initially went on display for a period last year and has been reinstalled just in time for visitors to view the historic document on this year’s Martin Luther King Jr holiday.
Now on display for the first time in 2022, the document will remain a part of the museum’s “Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom” gallery until February 27. Alongside the speech are a number of other objects associated with King, including the Congressional Gold Medal awarded posthumously to him and Coretta Scott King in 2014, a laundry pail used by King during the march from Selma to Montgomery and a programme from his funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The speech has gone on display with the permission of Villanova University, which recently became the speech’s steward and subsequently entered into a long-term loan agreement with the museum to display it.
Museums and galleries
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