Martin Luther King

What the Embrace means to Boston

By adamg - 1/13/23 - 9:41 pm

The Embrace after its unveiling on the Common

Photo by Paulo Teixeira.

Paulo Teixeira watched the unveiling of the the Boston Common statue honoring Martin Luther and Corretta Scott King (based on a photo of them hugging after he got word he'd won the Nobel Peace Prize).

The actual unveiling is around 2:36:00 in the video: Read more.

Statue to honor MLK on Boston Common is selected

By adamg - 3/4/19 - 8:45 am

King Boston, a group set up to select and build a memorial for Martin Luther King, said today it's selected "The Embrace," by Hank Willis Thomas and the MASS Design Group. Read more.

Five finalists for MLK and Coretta Scott King memorial on Boston Common announced

By adamg - 9/19/18 - 10:02 am

"The Embrace" by Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group.

The city and MLK Boston yesterday released the five finalists for a proposed memorial to the civil-rights leader and his wife - both of whom studied in Boston, where they met - on Boston Common.

Drawings of the five proposals are now on display at the BPL main library in Copley Square. They vary in size - one would include large walkways in black stone that would continue across Beacon Street to the grounds of the State House - and proposed location on the Common. Read more.

Copley Square to echo with speeches of Martin Luther King today

By adamg - 4/4/18 - 9:20 am

Through 6 p.m., Old South Church will be broadcasting King speeches, in memorial for the 50th anniversary of his assassination. At 6, around the time King was fatally shot, the loudspeakers will fall silent and the church bells will ring in his memory.

King in Boston.
King's link to Boston's abolitionist past.

King's link to Boston's past

By adamg - 1/15/18 - 10:19 am

Theodore Parker lecturing in 1856.

Martin Luther King's connections to Boston are well known: He got his PhD in religion at Boston University while living on Mass. Ave. in the South End, met his wife here, later returned for a march from Roxbury to downtown.

But King's connections go further, back into Boston's history as a center of the abolition movement before the Civil War. Read more.

Boston looks for artist to build Martin Luther King memorial

By adamg - 12/18/17 - 10:18 am

Mayor Walsh today announced the beginning of a competition for an artist to design and build a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr., who lived on Mass. Ave. in the South End while earning his doctorate at Boston University and preaching at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury and who returned to the city in 1965 to lead a civil-rights march from Roxbury to Boston Common. Read more.