This Friday, January 13, one of the largest memorials dedicated to racial equality will be unveiled in America’s oldest public park, Boston Common. It’s called “The Embrace.”
Sculptor, Hank Willis Thomas, pored over hundreds of images of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King. “There was an intimacy that I saw that wasn’t really highlighted often,” Thomas said.
One photo in particular got the sculptor’s attention: The reaction when Rev. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. “I just love that image, him hugging her with such glee and such joy and such pride, and I saw the pride on her face. And I recognized that this was teamwork. And all of his weight in that picture is, like, on her.”
Boston is where King and Coretta Scott met in the 1950s, and where he earned his Ph.D. in theology at Boston University. He preached in Boston, and in 1965, led a civil rights march from the Roxbury neighborhood to Boston Common, where “The Embrace” now stands.
Imari Paris Jeffries leads Embrace Boston, the non-profit that raised $8 million to create the sculpture, and an additional $2.5 million to preserve it. “It will be a symbol of Boston,” Jeffries said. “It will be a symbol of love, belonging and hope.”
Thomas has designed a memorial that is 20 feet high, meaning visitors will be able to walk through “The Embrace” and experience that spirit themselves.
“When you’re standing inside the sculpture, you will be in the heart of their embrace,” he said. “And when you really think about what happens when two people embrace one another, their hearts [line up]. You’re inside the love of these two people. There are so many monuments to victims of war; there are very, very few monuments to love.”
