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King in Boston

Martin Luther King formed many of his ideas about non-violent protest while a doctoral student at Boston University, from which he earned a PhD in systematic theology in 1955.

The Rev. Michael E. Haynes, who served with King as a young minister at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, recalls King's time here. Anthony Cromwell Hill discusses discusses what Boston and BU were like when King came here in 1951.

When Martin met Coretta - he lived at 397 Mass. Ave.; she was a student at the New England Conservatory. More on King's days in Boston.

We don't have a public statue that honors King (Free at Last is on BU property), but we do have a road and a school named in his honor.

In April, 1965, King returned to Boston for a march against the Boston's segregated housing and schools. Some 50,000 people walked with him.

Three years later, thousands of Bostonians gathered on the Common to mourn his death.

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Comments

I'm watching Mr. Lewis give a speech now and can't believe Trump would have the unmitigated balls to call this man "All Talk".

Trump can't be more of a clueless piece of human excrement.

We're all in trouble with this man at the helm.

God help America.,

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Lewis initiated the argument. While its worth noting Lewis refused to attend Bushes inauguration for the same BS reason.

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Lewis specifically boycotted the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush, he did not boycott GHW Bush inaugurations. The 2000 election was decided by the Supreme Court, is still considered by many to have been won by Al Gore, who at the very least won the popular vote, so was and is subject to questions of "legitimacy".

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MLK's niece has spoken at Faneuil Hall.
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/other/2_Feb/alvking.htm

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But did he ever visit? I can't find any indication that he went to any of the buildings along the Freedom Trail, though he was inspired by the Boston Tea Party as a way of non violence.

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Remember that Martin Luther King Jr. lived in Boston for three years, as a doctoral student, before he became famous. He was well aware of politics and history at that time of his life; I think it quite likely that he sought inspiration by visiting one or more of the city's historic sites during his time here. The Freedom Trail didn't exist yet -- it was first created a couple of years after he graduated -- but of course places like Faneuil Hall and Old South Meeting House were open to visitors. At the time there was nothing to mark the site of the Tea Party except a small plaque on an Atlantic Ave. building, so it's unlikely that he visited there.

He was also quite aware of the history of his own local parish, Twelfth Baptist Church, which had played a leading role in the abolitionist movement when it was on Phillips Street, on Beacon Hill.

I suspect he gave his 1965 speech on the Common simply because it was capable of holding the crowds that he was seeking, unlike Faneuil Hall, whose listed capacity used to be 999 people (and is somewhat less today).

It's also documented that he spoke at Christ Church on Garden Street in Harvard Square in 1967, when he spoke out against the Vietnam war.

He lived at three different addresses during his time in Boston, all near what was then the heart of African-American life in the city, the corner of Columbus Ave. and Massachusetts Ave. His first residence was a rooming house at 170 Saint Botolph St., where he lived for one term, and quickly realized that he was living on the "white" side of the tracks even though he was just 3 blocks from the center of the city's black neighborhood. He then rented an apartment at 397 Massachusetts Ave. with some graduate student friends. After marrying Coretta in summer 1953, they moved to another apartment at 396 Northampton St. (now demolished). Twelfth Baptist Church at that time was just a few blocks away, on Shawmut Ave. near the current site of Melnea Cass Blvd.

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If you are ever in Memphis it is an obligation to visit the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. Very thought provoking, educational and, finally, moving, as, after walking though the exhibits on the history of the Civil Rights movement, the exhibits end at the room where King spent his last night.

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JFK was a staunch opponent to the 1957 Civil Rights Act and authorized his A.G. brother Bobby to secretly wiretap MLK Jr. in an attempt to ruin him. JFK only "joined" the Civil Rights cause when it became politically expedient, just a couple of decades after dad Joseph Kennedy was cheering on Hitler. As statues of confederate Democrats are torn down across the South, it's long past time to remove JFK's name from the Red Line Station in Dorchester and re-name it for Dr. King, a great pro-life conservative. It was nice to see Dr. King's niece reveal that she also voted for President-elect Trump. It was even better to see MLK III praying with President-elect Trump today. Happy Birthday to you, Dr. King, long live your message.

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Predictably, your rendition of history is utterly false. It is a combination distorted facts, fabrications, lies, omitted information and generally long ago disproven right wing conspiracy bullshit. This is the kind of crap that Howie Carr and the other talk radio lunatics try to pass off as intellectual discourse.

Your comments, once again, expose you as the breath-taking bigot, ignoramus, and documented liar that you are known to be. While the readers and participants on this site may disagree on any number of issues, I suspect most would agree that you are nothing more than a breathing mass of protoplasm that wanders from site to site seeking validation that your life is not as meaningless as it feels.

Now go log in using one of your other fake IDs so you can defend yourself.

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