Winning Design Announced For MLK, Coretta Scott King Memorial On Boston Common
BOSTON (CBS) - We now know what a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King will look like when it rises in Boston. It's called The Embrace, and will be built on the Boston Common. It's perfect for the city because this is where the pair met.
The old film footage often shows Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King marching hand in hand on the front lines of the Civil Rights struggle. And that's the theme of The Embrace," the artwork selected out 125 designs, for the Boston memorial.
"It's a memorial that really encapsulates the relationship between Dr. King and Coretta Scott King," says Rev. Jeffrey Brown, the Associate Pastor at Roxbury's Twelfth Baptist Church, which is where the couple met.
Dr. King also preached there. "It's the Boston story. It's where they met as young students and we wanted to commemorate that. And we also look at Coretta's importance during his career," says Paul English, the founder of King Boston, the driving force behind the memorial.
"I think for children, I hope they see this memorial, and as they read or learn about the information, they really get a sense of hope for our nation and for their own neighborhood. That there is hope to really get involved and make a difference," says Rev. Brown.
In about a year to a year and a half, the memorial will stand near the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common. The hope is that it will bring us all together. "Using love to get messages out and support people, and hopefully on the Boston Common, it starts there and radiates around the city," says English.
The memorial is just the beginning. Money is also being raised to build The King Center for Economic Justice in Roxbury, to endow the Twelfth Baptist Church to create MLK programming, and to produce a documentary about the love story between Martin and Coretta.
The Embrace is the work of artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group.