Memorial to King still only a dream

Action negligible after Menino vow

Martin Luther King III spoke during a visit to the Twelfth Baptist Church along with Mayor Thomas M. Menino. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff/File 2008)

With Martin Luther King III at his side, Mayor Thomas M. Menino stood before a packed Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury a year ago and proudly announced that "we will build a statue to Dr. King and Coretta right here in our city."

Applause burst forth from the crowd of 350 people packed into the church. If built, it would be the first public statue to honor Martin Luther King Jr. in the city - a highly significant tribute given the slain civil right leader's legacy in Boston and the city's history of racial strife.

But nearly a year later, almost nothing has been done. No committee has been formed, no site has been identified, no artist has been selected, no design has been proposed.

City officials, citing tough economic times, say the mayor's plans for a statue honoring King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, have not been forgotten, but the city's priorities have shifted to programs and people hit hard by the crumbling economy.

The faltering economy's full effect on City Hall budgets became clear about four months ago, and before that, said Menino, the city was working on finding committee members to lead the effort.

"It's taken longer than we'd like to get this committee off the ground," Menino said yesterday. "But as we started getting the names together . . . the finances started drying up on us and some of the people we were talking to were saying it's not the appropriate time. My intention is to continue to seek ways to have an appropriate statue in Boston."

The mayor made his announcement on Jan. 15, 2008, pledging to appoint a committee "to raise funds, select a site - and we have a couple of sites under consideration - and request design proposals." The announcement was captured on video, which is posted on the city's website.

The lack of progress on the statue has irked and disappointed some artists, religious leaders, and local political leaders.

"I don't think it's acceptable that it is taking this long," said City Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who has been pushing to have a King statue in the city for the past 10 years.

"Boston of all places needs to follow through and make this happen," said Michael E. Haynes, a friend of King's who served as a minister with King at Twelfth Baptist. "Any fire lit under this proposal that is moving slowly and not moving at all would be good."

Martin Luther King III was unavailable for comment.

While some in the city acknowledge that the wheels of City Hall turn slowly, they say there is no excuse for not putting a committee together to get the ball rolling.

King, the leading figure in the American civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968, had strong ties to Boston. He studied as a theology doctoral student in the early 1950s at Boston University - which has a major repository of his papers - and worked as a minister at Twelfth Baptist Church, where he was introduced to a young woman named Coretta Scott, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

"Nothing in government moves quickly," said the Rev. LaTrelle Miller Easterling, the new pastor of Union United Methodist Church in Boston, which hosts a King breakfast every year. "It's certainly time for the City of Boston to recognize Dr. King as well as his spouse, Coretta Scott King, especially with his connection to Boston University's School of Theology and his contributions to the country."

Brooke Woodson, who heads the city's small and local business office and was tapped by the mayor to push the project forward, said the city had been working to get the right mix of people - including activists who worked with King, people who can raise money, those who have different artistic talents, and others to assist with the design proposal as well as pick an appropriate site for the statue.

Menino's spokeswoman, Dorothy Joyce, said Boston initially set aside $15,000 in seed money from a fund of private donations the city raised for public art. With the decline in the economy, she said, any additional available funds "need to be targeted to children and the most vulnerable first."

Woodson said the total cost of a statue could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Local artists said that, given King's deep connection to the city, they were surprised by the delays at City Hall.

"There are plenty of talented sculptors in the community that could be able to handle that particular commission," said Gloretta Baynes, artist and curator of the African American Master Artists-in-Residency Program at Northeastern University.

There is still considerable faith that Menino will make good on his promise.

"I'm not surprised given the economic conditions that we are experiencing," said Bishop Gilbert Thompson, senior pastor of Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan, who introduced the mayor at the convocation last year. "There are things that are more of a priority. I take it that when Mayor Menino said those words that he was sincere."

,em>Meghan Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com