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With a handful of pulls from city and state leaders, a black tarp fell off the first art installation on Boston Common in 30 years — a monument to the work of and love shared by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Nearly 57 years after King spoke to tens of thousands gathered on the Boston Common, officials unveiled a new statute there Friday meant to honor the civil rights icon and reflect the diversity of the city, which has a reputation as one of the most racist in the country.
Standing 20 feet tall and weighing nearly 38,000 pounds, “The Embrace” has been five years in the making and was designed by artist Hank Willis Thomas and the firm MASS Design Group. The monument, and the 1965 Freedom Plaza that it sits on, are the first new additions to the Boston Common in three decades.
In a speech at a ceremony celebrating the sculpture’s official unveiling, Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the civil rights leader, said his father and mother were “drawn like a magnet to Boston.”
“They both love this city because of its proud heritage as a hotbed of the abolitionist movement and its unique intellectual and educational resources,” he said. “And indeed, Boston became the place where they forged a partnership that would change America, and make a powerful contribution to the Black freedom struggle. That’s what I see in this beautiful monument.”
The 1965 Freedom Plaza built alongside the monument honors 64 local civil rights leaders that were active between 1950 and 1970, who organizers say reflect “the broad range of cultural and lived experiences of the people that make up Greater Boston.”
“The plaza highlights the stories of the Boston people that in their fight for social rights marched with King during the 1965 Freedom Rally, which ended at the Boston Common,” said organizers with Embrace Boston, a nonprofit organization based at the Boston Foundation dedicated to working against structural racism through arts and culture.
It was a march intended to protest racial imbalances in schools and housing, the Harvard Crimson reported a little more than a week before the 1965 rally. King started in Roxbury, marched through Boston, and eventually ended up on Boston Common.
Marchers stretched for about a mile, the Boston Globe reported the day after, and a “chilling drizzle” fell on those who gathered on Boston Common. From the Parkman Bandstand, King said “bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent issues. What is the most tragic is the silence.”
“We must not become a nation of onlookers,” King is reported as saying during the speech. “This fight is not for the sake of the Negro alone but rather for the aspirations of America itself. All Americans must take a stand against evil.”
While he was in Boston, King met with then-Boston Mayor John F. Collins, then-Gov. John Anthony Volpe, and offered an address to a Joint Session of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Embrace Boston Executive Director Imari Paris Jeffries said the sculpture is a symbol of the Kings’ legacy and an embodiment of their “impactful love within all of us.”
“‘The Embrace’ symbolizes community,” he said after fighting back tears. “... It’s not the end of the rope for Embrace Boston. It’s just the beginning. It’s the start of a new journey as we ready ourselves for the creation of an Embrace Center in Roxbury.”
The statue, a 25-foot-wide bronze sculpture made up of about 609 individual pieces, sits between the Boston Common Visitors Center and the Boston Massacre/Crispus Attucks Memorial, generally across from Sal’s Pizza on Tremont Street. It depicts King embracing his wife, Coretta Scott King. It is inspired by a photo taken of the pair hugging after King won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The couple was no stranger to Boston, having spent their early, formative years in the city. King received a Ph.D. from Boston University, and Scott earned a degree in music education from the New England Conservatory of Music.
King III said he has always felt a “powerful bond of solidarity with this first great American city.”
“Of course, it is the city where my parents met, fell in love, and decided to create a family,” he said. “And in a way, I owe my very existence to Boston as the place my parents found each other.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said too often, and especially in January, the legacy of King is “reduced to that of a peaceful protestor with a dream.”
“The whole truth is Dr. King was a proud and unapologetic Black man, a prophetic preacher, and a radical dreamer with a bold vision and desire for revolutionary change,” Pressley said. “Dr. King’s vision was a radical one considered bold for the times, full inclusion, equity, a redistribution of wealth and resources, and voting rights. In word and deed, he sought to affirm that Black lives matter.”
Last 3 words of the story doesn’t surprise Me.
More pics in article.
New Boston Common sculpture honors Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King
- Updated: Jan. 13, 2023, 5:46 p.m.|
- Published: Jan. 13, 2023, 5:22 p.m.
With a handful of pulls from city and state leaders, a black tarp fell off the first art installation on Boston Common in 30 years — a monument to the work of and love shared by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Nearly 57 years after King spoke to tens of thousands gathered on the Boston Common, officials unveiled a new statute there Friday meant to honor the civil rights icon and reflect the diversity of the city, which has a reputation as one of the most racist in the country.
Standing 20 feet tall and weighing nearly 38,000 pounds, “The Embrace” has been five years in the making and was designed by artist Hank Willis Thomas and the firm MASS Design Group. The monument, and the 1965 Freedom Plaza that it sits on, are the first new additions to the Boston Common in three decades.
In a speech at a ceremony celebrating the sculpture’s official unveiling, Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the civil rights leader, said his father and mother were “drawn like a magnet to Boston.”
“They both love this city because of its proud heritage as a hotbed of the abolitionist movement and its unique intellectual and educational resources,” he said. “And indeed, Boston became the place where they forged a partnership that would change America, and make a powerful contribution to the Black freedom struggle. That’s what I see in this beautiful monument.”
The 1965 Freedom Plaza built alongside the monument honors 64 local civil rights leaders that were active between 1950 and 1970, who organizers say reflect “the broad range of cultural and lived experiences of the people that make up Greater Boston.”
“The plaza highlights the stories of the Boston people that in their fight for social rights marched with King during the 1965 Freedom Rally, which ended at the Boston Common,” said organizers with Embrace Boston, a nonprofit organization based at the Boston Foundation dedicated to working against structural racism through arts and culture.
It was a march intended to protest racial imbalances in schools and housing, the Harvard Crimson reported a little more than a week before the 1965 rally. King started in Roxbury, marched through Boston, and eventually ended up on Boston Common.
Marchers stretched for about a mile, the Boston Globe reported the day after, and a “chilling drizzle” fell on those who gathered on Boston Common. From the Parkman Bandstand, King said “bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent issues. What is the most tragic is the silence.”
“We must not become a nation of onlookers,” King is reported as saying during the speech. “This fight is not for the sake of the Negro alone but rather for the aspirations of America itself. All Americans must take a stand against evil.”
While he was in Boston, King met with then-Boston Mayor John F. Collins, then-Gov. John Anthony Volpe, and offered an address to a Joint Session of the Massachusetts Legislature.
Embrace Boston Executive Director Imari Paris Jeffries said the sculpture is a symbol of the Kings’ legacy and an embodiment of their “impactful love within all of us.”
“‘The Embrace’ symbolizes community,” he said after fighting back tears. “... It’s not the end of the rope for Embrace Boston. It’s just the beginning. It’s the start of a new journey as we ready ourselves for the creation of an Embrace Center in Roxbury.”
The statue, a 25-foot-wide bronze sculpture made up of about 609 individual pieces, sits between the Boston Common Visitors Center and the Boston Massacre/Crispus Attucks Memorial, generally across from Sal’s Pizza on Tremont Street. It depicts King embracing his wife, Coretta Scott King. It is inspired by a photo taken of the pair hugging after King won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The couple was no stranger to Boston, having spent their early, formative years in the city. King received a Ph.D. from Boston University, and Scott earned a degree in music education from the New England Conservatory of Music.
King III said he has always felt a “powerful bond of solidarity with this first great American city.”
“Of course, it is the city where my parents met, fell in love, and decided to create a family,” he said. “And in a way, I owe my very existence to Boston as the place my parents found each other.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said too often, and especially in January, the legacy of King is “reduced to that of a peaceful protestor with a dream.”
“The whole truth is Dr. King was a proud and unapologetic Black man, a prophetic preacher, and a radical dreamer with a bold vision and desire for revolutionary change,” Pressley said. “Dr. King’s vision was a radical one considered bold for the times, full inclusion, equity, a redistribution of wealth and resources, and voting rights. In word and deed, he sought to affirm that Black lives matter.”
Last 3 words of the story doesn’t surprise Me.
