A 25 Million Dollar Document

By Bob Cox

Have you ever been in a situation where your head is telling you to do one thing while your heart tells you to go the opposite direction? This is a true story about two men thrown together by the tumultuous winds of change during the Civil Rights Movement. Both men altered their original plans and the results would be extraordinary. One would become immortalized in American history while the other would achieve wealth beyond net worth.

Seconds after delivering his riveting "I Have a Dream Speech" upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a warm August day in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gathered up his notes, turned to his left and faced one of his volunteer security guards. Just before a throng of media surrounded King, the guard summoned the courage to ask for the type-written speech. Without a word, King handed the man his notes and the guard quickly folded up the three sheets of paper, took them home and inserted them in a book where they rested undisturbed for more than two decades. The guard’s name was George Raveling.

Two days earlier, the 26 year-old Raveling, an ardent supporter and admirer of Dr. King's work had not planned to attend The March on Washington. Raveling changed his mind after having another soul searching conversation about civil rights during dinner with his best friend Warren Wilson and Wilson's family. When Warren's father, Dr. Wilson strongly urged the young men to reconsider, they both finally agreed.

The following day, an event organizer asked George and Warren if they would be willing to provide security and they both said yes. At the time, Raveling was an assistant basketball coach at Villanova University. Nine years later, he would go on to become the first African American head coach for a Pac 8 school, Washington State.

Twenty one years passed after King's speech, when there was a knock on the door. A reporter for the Cedar Rapids Gazette named Bob Denney had arrived at the office of Raveling to interview him after he became the first African American head coach at the University of Iowa. When the reporter learned that Raveling possessed Dr. King's original speech, Denney was shocked! Minutes later, Denney offered to have the documents museum treated and framed as a gift, which Raveling gratefully accepted.

One of the most compelling parts of this story is not what was written in those original notes, but the words that were conspicuously absent from them. Nowhere in the speech was the famous phrase "I have a dream". During the first few minutes of his speech the next day, King followed the script with eyes affixed upon the pages. Then, he heard the voice of African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouting above the crowd of 250,000 civil rights supporters, "Tell them about the dream, Martin." King paused, set down the papers and gazed across the sea of humanity. After a moment of silence, he broke free from the script and spoke from his heart. In slightly over 16 minutes, King inspired millions with his words. "And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It's a dream deeply rooted in the American dream . . ."

When a collector recently offered over 3 million dollars for King’s original notes, Raveling, now 77 turned it down. A recent USA Today story quoted a rare documents historian as claiming they could easily be valued in the $25 million price range. When Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated asked him why he refused to sell this treasured piece of history, Raveling thoughtfully replied, "At this point in my life, what difference does it make. I'm not rich, but it's not like I'm poor either". The gift presented to him over five decades ago by a man that was his hero clearly meant more to him than any amount of money.

While there are many intelligent people that would emphasize the importance of planning carefully and using the awesome power of the mind, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and George Reveling gave us two powerful examples of the value of being flexible by consulting your gut instincts. The willingness to improvise when your carefully constructed plans have run short of taking you to the “promised land” takes great faith, courage and wisdom. Had Dr. King followed that carefully crafted script, his message may have been just another excellent speech that no one would remember today. For George Raveling, had he said no to either Dr. Wilson or the anonymous organizer, that 25 million dollar document that he has treasured so dearly for the past half century would be either missing or in someone else’s possession.