What it means to “be” MLK
By Khari Thompson
Last week, we talked about what we wanted to remember from 2025, and what the memories we cherish as a nation say about us.
In less than a week, January 2026 has already become a month of both memory and moment.
This month marks three years since we unveiled The Embrace on Boston Common—a monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man whose legacy we’ll celebrate just weeks from now, and his wife, Coretta Scott King. A monument to the idea that love, made visible and public, can be a force for justice.
We’ve always striven to honor the Kings’ belief that building a better country for all Americans requires that we uplift every voice—and that love and respect for our brothers and sisters is the most powerful tool in a democracy. The commemoration of The Embrace, amid our continued conversations around race and social justice following the murder of George Floyd, made progress toward those ideals feel attainable.
|
|
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons) |
|
But as we prepare to celebrate 250 years since America’s founding, we’re in a different moment.
The same president who stood aside as insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol five years ago today has spent the last year waging war on the ideals on which this nation was founded. Civil rights are under siege. History is being flattened, sanitized and erased. People are being dehumanized—in our laws, our language and our public spaces—and disappeared, from immigrants whose only crime is seeking the American dream to foreign leaders who run afoul of the administration.
In such a moment, where does Embrace stand? Who are we?
Some might wonder what an organization that prides itself on following in Dr. King’s ethos of nonviolence and racial justice, that champions love and empathy, that uplifts the power of the arts and culture, has to say about democracy and holding power to account.
They knew we could never build the nation of our dreams until we admitted our flaws. They knew racial injustice wasn’t the only form of othering we had to combat if we wanted to realize a world rooted in love rather than hate.
So this year, with MLK Day approaching and a chance to reimagine both our country and the city of Boston in America’s 250th year, Embrace aims not just to remember Dr. and Mrs. King, but to embody what they stood for—to demand America rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed in every way.
Because all of us are stewards not just of the Kings’ dream but of America itself. And when one pillar of belonging—whether it be racial justice, gender equity or economic prosperity for all—is under siege, all of us are threatened.
This year, let’s get back to building the best version of our country.
|
|
|
|
|
