Boston’s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial will include Boston Common monument

Boston plans this November to select a design for a major memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The couple met in Boston, and spent some formative years in the city.

The memorial is due to have four parts:

• A monument in Boston Common;
• What has been described as “an interactive MLK Learning Center” in Roxbury’s Dudley Square;
• A $1 million endowment for programming that will be developed with the Twelfth Baptist Church, the Roxbury institution where King ministered in the early 1950s;
• And a new documentary about the couple and their work and lives in Boston.

The city and its nonprofit partner MLK Boston on June 8 announced the five finalists that will vie to contribute to the multi-prong memorial’s design. The partners had received some 126 ideas following an international call for proposals in December. From a June 8 release from the city:

The memorial will commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s years in Boston, as well as the public philosophies of Dr. King, and the legacy of his work around the world. In addition, a key goal of the memorial is to serve as a call to action that compels the community to confront racial and economic inequality, discrimination and other relevant social justice issues. It is also intended to reflect Coretta Scott King’s faith in the power of art, and her struggles against militarism, poverty, discrimination, racism, and sexism.

The city and MLK Boston hope to select a final design in November, following a public-comment period in September. Each of the finalists will receive a $10,000 stipend from the nonprofit to further their ideas.

Here is information on the five finalists. Stay tuned.

• City reveals plans for Boston’s memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King [Globe]
• Martin Luther King Jr. in the Boston area: Where he lived, worked, and played [Curbed Boston]