Villanova University is now the permanent steward of Dr. Martin Luther King’s original copy of his “I Have a Dream” speech, writes Jackie Thomas

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” -- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

It was first proposed four days after King's 1968 assassination outside a Memphis motel. It took 15 years until it became a federal holiday.

Nearly 60 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made the first of two visits to this city. It was on March 12, 1961, when, at the invitation of Rabbi Joseph Klein, King spoke at the third in a series of four community forums held at Temple Emanuel.

Learley and Curtis McAllister were 12 and 9 years old, respectively, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech outside of Girard College in August