BOSTON (WHDH) - A historic church in Boston with ties to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was presented with a $1 million donation on Monday.
King Boston, a non-profit that works to create a living memorial and programs honoring the legacy of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, donated the money to Roxbury’s Twelfth Baptist Church.
“It is at the center of Black community in Boston…So there probably could be no greater gift for an organization that was rooted in the work and the values of Dr. King than to contribute to the church that he served at and he attended,” King Boston executive Imari Paris Jeffries said.
Jeffries added that Dr. King actually met his wife at the church when they were both studying in Boston.
Reverend Willie Bodrick II says the new funding is a blessing.
“We’ve already been doing the work of trying to provide safe spaces for our children and families, so we’re going to continue to do that work,” Bodrick said. “But I believe that in this moment there are so many big issues like housing affordability and issues of gentrification in our community that we’re going to continue to tackle.”
Gov. Charlie Baker is supporting the church’s efforts, saying there is currently $1 billion before the legislature to support housing and home ownership for communities of color that were hit hard by the pandemic.
“If there’s one thing we learned during this pandemic, it’s that housing insecurity is a public health issue,” Baker said.
Since 2016, King Boston says it has raised $20 million to support racial equity in the city. They plan to use some of that money to build a new center for economic justice.
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