FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 23, 2025

Contact: Clennon L. King | AugustineMonica Films 

207.450.3585 | clennon@augustinemonica.com

News Advisory

Boston, Massachusetts>>> In mid June, the daughters of two MLK associates from his Boston years will help unveil a plaque in Roxbury where Martin Luther King, Jr. sought membership to the nation’s oldest Black collegiate fraternity. 

     Actress Lauren B. Martin of New York City and Senior Trial Court Clerk Myra I. Hemingway of Medford will help unveil a plaque, featuring an iconic photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. and seven fraternity line brothers taken in the Roxbury neighborhood where both their fathers  grew up.

     The photo was the work of Martin’s father, the late Roxbury and Wareham Judge Baron H. Martin, II, who was Sigma Chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha at the time. Taken in the spring of 1952 on the front steps of Martin’s family’s home, the image captures eight pledges, including King, pictured bottom right, and Hemingway’s father, late Atty. Herman W. Hemingway, pictured top left. The following year, Hemingway would be the first of two Blacks to graduate from Brandeis University. Hemingway's grandparents would also host the initial recruitment reception MLK attended six blocks away. 

      The plaque unveiling will take place at the original site of the photograph, 14 Wabon Street in Roxbury on Wednesday, June 18th, 10 a.m., the 72nd wedding anniversary of Martin and Coretta. It’s free and open to the public.

     The plaque will be the fourth physical marker unveiled of the digitally-based 27-Address Martin and Coretta Love Story Trail in Boston, researched and designed by historian and documentary filmmaker Clennon L. King (no relation), who lived in Greater Boston for nearly a decade and authored the granular Boston Magazine article on the couple’s Boston years.  

     In 2021, King partnered with Boston developer Kamran Zahedi to mark the former footprint of Twelfth Baptist Church on Shawmut at Melnea Cass, where MLK preached from 1951 to 1954. In 2022, he teamed up with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and historian Byron Rushing to mark the South End address of the Kings’ newlywed home, their Boston address from 1953 to 1954. Last June, King collaborated with Mr. & Mrs. David DeFilippo, owners of Everett-based Woodlawn Memorials, to place a headstone on the unmarked grave of the late Mary Louise Powell, who in January of 1952 played cupid to the historic couple.  

     On March 1, 2023, the Boston City Council passed a unanimous resolution to establish the Love Story Trail designed by King to help honor the couple’s Boston legacy.

     The June 18th 10 a.m. unveiling program will also include the pouring of libations by Boston historian Joel Mackall, selections by vocalist Lovely Hoffman, and remarks by Father Oscar Pratt of St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, who himself pledged Alpha and Rev. Albert Whitaker, pastor of St. Mark Congregational Church in Roxbury. Also on hand will be Mr. Jason Asirifi, Eastern Region President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 

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