Embrace memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King to be unveiled in Boston Friday
BOSTON - A series of events honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy in Boston began Thursday, a day before a new sculpture is unveiled.
The YMCA of Greater Boston hosted a breakfast for business and community leaders, led by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
"We're not there yet. We have much work still ahead," the mayor said as they discussed ways to strengthen the community in Dr. King's honor.
"It takes a whole community to do this work," said Imari Paris Jeffries, the executive director of King Boston.
They agreed that moving Boston forward requires partnership and acknowledgment of the past that's still keeping marginalized people back.
"What we have to do as a city is acknowledge that and begin to bring healing to that and not allow our progressive rhetoric to ignore the real racism that still exists," said Rev. Willie Bodrick, II of the Twelfth Baptist Church.
The main event comes Friday afternoon when the new 22-foot tall Embrace Memorial will be formally unveiled on Boston Common, near the Parkman Bandstand. It's the first new monument on the Common in more than 30 years.
The Embrace memorializes the hug Dr. King shared with his wife Coretta after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
King met Coretta Scott in Boston in the 1950s and he earned his Ph.D. in theology at Boston University. He preached in Boston, and in 1965, led a civil rights march from Roxbury to the Common, where The Embrace now stands.
The non-profit Embrace Boston raised $8 million to create the sculpture and an additional $2.5 million to preserve it.
There will also be events this weekend. Project 351, with people representing the state's 351 towns, will have its' annual Launch and Service Day at Faneuil Hall at 9:30 a.m.
The annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. College, Career and Health Fair will also be held Saturday at the Melnea Cass Rec Center in Roxbury at 10 a.m.