CNN —
Just days before Martin Luther King Jr.’s 94th birthday, “Embrace,” a monument dedicated to King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, was unveiled in Boston, where they first met.
The massive monument was unveiled Friday, according to a blog post by Embrace Boston, which works “to eliminate structural racism through their work at the intersection of art and culture, community, research and politics.”
The 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide statue “symbolizes the embrace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared with his wife Coretta after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and celebrates their time in Boston when they met as students, ” according to Embrace.
The piece was designed by Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, Embrace says. Multiple trucks transported various parts of the bronze monument from Washington state to Boston. The latest statue was welded and assembled in December before its unveiling on Friday.
“This represents an incredible milestone in our journey toward Boston’s future,” said Imari Paris Jeffries, CEO of Embrace, in the blog post. “We are thrilled to see this historic landmark finally take shape after years of tireless efforts by our key partners, the City of Boston, supporters and our staff.”
The statue has been on Freedom Plaza since 1965 on the Boston Common, where King gave a speech on April 23 to a crowd of 22,000.
Embrace also released a navigation app that pairs with the monument, offering visitors stories and first-hand accounts of the civil rights movement, as well as behind-the-scenes information on the construction of the memorial.
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