Last-minute volunteer took home copy of "I Have a Dream" speech

The video reveals that the most famous part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered 50 years ago, was not in the original text but was ad-libbed.

George Raveling, then a 26-year-old former college basketball star and a last-minute volunteer, had a coveted spot near the podium during Dr. King's historic speech.

After the speech, as people were celebrating, Raveling approached Dr. King and asked for the copy of the speech, which King handed to him. He then tucked the three pages into an autobiography of Harry Truman and largely forgot about them for decades.

In 1984, a local newspaper reporter interviewed Raveling about his career as the first African-American coach at Iowa. When asked about his involvement in the civil rights movement, Raveling shared his story, leading to the rediscovery of the speech text, found exactly where he left it.

The document shows an asterisk where Dr. King transitioned into the ad-libbed 'I Have a Dream' portion, turning a planned four-minute speech into a 16-minute historic address.

At age 76, Raveling considers himself the guardian of the speech, emphasizing it belongs to America and not to him. He has repeatedly declined multi-million dollar offers, stating that some things, like the speech, are beyond monetary value.