Listen to a newly discovered first version of MLK's iconic 'I Have a Dream' speech

A researcher made an incredible discovery while working on a book about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: A recording of his "I Have a Dream" speech, given nearly a year before he famously delivered it in front of thousands of people in Washington, D.C.

English professor Jason Miller found the tape inside a box labeled "Martin Luther King Jr. — Please do not erase" at the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, library. Miller had been looking for more information on King and his use of poetry by Langston Hughes in speeches when he made the discovery, and knew it was King as soon as he played the tape. "Hearing those words was absolutely remarkable," Miller told ABC News.

The recording is believed to be the first version of the iconic speech, previewed inside the gym at Rocky Mount High School on Nov. 27, 1962 — several months before his Aug. 28, 1963, address in Washington. Historians knew the speech was first delivered in North Carolina, but no one had ever heard a recording before it was unveiled Tuesday in North Carolina State University's Hunt Library, ABC 11 reports. Herbert Tillman was a senior at Rocky Mount High School when he sat in on the speech, and remembers how it felt to be there. "I was all into it, all eyes, all ears, and I just felt so uplifted," he said. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.