BOSTON (WHDH) – After meticulous planning, creativity and construction work, a 20-foot-tall bronze sculpture honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King will be unveiled on Boston Common Friday and the King family etc. Organizer.
When it comes to the King family legacy, Boston is embracing their influence and life with the addition of the “Embrace” statue to the city park. This statue pays tribute to a couple who fell in love in the city and features two intertwined arms. kept changing the world.
“We are the only city in America where the story of a royal love began,” said Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston, the nonprofit overseeing the project. “Many of us must have never thought their origin story began in this city.”
The sculpture, created by artist Hank Willis Thomas, was inspired by a photograph of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King embracing after learning that the civil rights leader had won the Nobel Peace Prize. rice field.
“It was as if Dr. King’s entire weight rested on her shoulders, so I thought it symbolized the power of women. Black women, and women in general, are retainers, keepers, It’s the foundation of many movements,” Jeffries said.
Their love story began in Boston in the 1950s. At the time, Martin Luther King, his junior, was studying at Boston College, while Coretta Scott was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. One of the couple’s first date locations, Jeffries said, Boston Common is the perfect place to honor them and their enduring dreams.
“Boston could be the new city,” Jeffries told 7NEWS. “With ‘The Embrace’, it could be a city of belonging, inclusion and love. It felt like the best place to set it up on the nearby Freedom Trail so that it could be accessed by people and residents.”
The site also has other historical significance. Dr. King He led the March for Racial Equality on April 23, 1965. The march began at Roxbury, where he gathered 22,000 on the common to hear him speak. Jeffries calls the place sacred.
“It’s very quiet when you’re on the site. It’s very enjoyable and very meditative,” he added.
The organizers of “The Embrace”, including Jeffries, hope that when the public comes out to see the monument with their own eyes, they will see the sculptures not only with their eyes but also with their hearts.
“I was overwhelmed with emotion and joy. At that moment, it was cemented that we were not just building this monument to honor the Kings, but something special for Boston.”
Following an unveiling ceremony on Friday, January 13, it will officially open to the public in early February, according to people familiar with the matter.
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