CBS News special correspondent James Brown recently interviewed 76-year-old former University of Iowa basketball coach George Raveling on an episode of CBS Sunday Morning.

In the interview, Raveling said he was visiting his best friend Warren Wilson and family 50 years ago in Wilmington, Del.

At Wilson's father's urging, they made plans to attend the March in Washington for Jobs and Freedom Aug. 28, 1963, Raveling said.

They arrived the night before and were recruited as volunteers.

Raveling told Brown the two were assigned to handle security around the podium.

As a result, he stood near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the final speaker.

After King's now historic address, Raveling asked King if he could have the copy of the speech.

As Brown said in the interview, "That's right, George Raveling was handed one of the greatest speeches in American history by Martin Luther King Jr., himself. It all happened by chance – the result of a dinner conversation at the home of a friend a few days before the march."

The irony, according to both Brown and Raveling, lie in the words, "I have a dream" which are never mentioned in the speech in Raveling's possession.

The words we all know and learned in school were ad-libbed.

In King's speech, he is quoted as saying, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Let's talk about Raveling's character. He didn't ask for that speech so he could turn around and sell it to the highest bidder.

In fact, although he knew what he had heard and witnessed was historic, he took the speech and kept it folded in a book until an interview with a reporter 20 years later.

The reporter had the untitled speech framed for Raveling and it now is kept in a bank vault for safe keeping.

Brown said although being offered millions for the speech, Raveling will not sell the original document and, in fact, has made arrangements for his son to inherit the speech with the condition it is never to be sold.

"The speech belongs to America; the speech belongs to black folks," Raveling told Brown in the interview. "It doesn't belong to me, and it would be sacrilegious of me to try and sell it to profit from it."

In a world today where our ancestors' treasurers and historical items are constantly being sold online to the highest bidder, I salute Raveling for recognizing the historical value of the speech and ignoring the enticement of an outrageous amount of money to compromise his character.

So many things came together for Raveling that day – he went to a historic event he was not planning on attending, his agreement to volunteer allowed him to be on the podium with King and his courage to ask for the speech was more than many of us would ever dream of doing.

His steadfastness in remaining true to his character has allowed him to hold onto this piece of history for future dreamers in our nation – all the while embellishing on King's noted dreams for the future.

Brown asked Raveling why he wouldn't sell the speech.

"Because I would like to think somewhere out there, my mom and dad and my grandma taught me better than that. And everything in life you can't equate in money."

Thank you Dr. King for your message 50 years ago and for your quest for peace – a message this writer dreams will happen one day for her two children and future generations.

And thank you George Raveling for having the character to hold on to and share this important part of history.

Dr. King, your parents and grandma would be proud.

Debbie

Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press