BPR Full Show: MLK Day

Today on Boston Public Radio:

We opened the show by taking our listener’s calls to ask how they felt about The Embrace sculpture installed on Boston Common last week. The statue highlights the connections Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King had to the city of Boston and honors their love and legacy of civil rights activism.

Michael Curry, the CEO of the community health centers of Massachusetts, called in from the annual MLK Day memorial breakfast in Boston. He discussed the legacy of the Kings in Boston and what the monument means for the city going forward. Curry is also a member of the national NAACP board of directors, where he chairs the board’s advocacy and policy committee

Charlie Sennott of the Groundtruth Project came on to talk about the new equipment that the United States has sent to Ukraine, and how that reflects the shifting needs of the army there. He also discussed the ongoing threats to democracy in Brazil by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Shirley Leung came on to discuss the holes in the electric vehicle charging network in Massachusetts and across the country. She also discussed the optimism among business leaders regarding Gov. Maura Healey’s administration. Leung is a Boston Globe business columnist.

The Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price III joined us to discuss how Dr. King’s message and beliefs have been misconstrued and sanitized for political convenience over the course of American history. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and co-host of the All Rev’d Up podcast. Price is founding pastor of Community of Love Christian Fellowship in Allston, the inaugural dean of Africana studies at Berklee College of Music and co-host of the All Rev’d Up podcast.

Then we aired a segment from our live broadcast of The Embrace unveiling from this past Friday. The segment included excerpts from our interviews with members of the King family, Diane and Deval Patrick, Mayor Michelle Wu, Healey and Attorney General-elect Andrea Campbell.

We ended the show by asking listeners if they are participating in this national day of service on MLK Day.