PHOTOS: New Mural in Roxbury Honors Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King peer out into Boston's Roxbury neighborhood in a new mural unveiled Friday on the walls of a new building on Shawmut Avenue.
"Roxbury Love Story," by Rob "ProBlak" Gibbs, depicts the Kings on the phone on either side of the building's entryway. The mural is meant to celebrate the civil rights icons' courtship in the place where King once preached as an assistant minister, according to the building's developer.
That church, Twelfth Baptist, has moved. The new, six-story development at its old address is called Melnea Residences, and its developer, Kamran Zahedi, said in a statement he "wanted to not only honor the Kings' love story, but also this neighborhood where they fell in love."
The Kings met while Martin was studying theology at Boston University and Coretta was enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music. They married in 1953 and moved to Alabama the next year.
Gibbs and Genaro Ortega were still putting some finishing touches on the mural Friday afternoon.