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English, then chief technology officer at travel tech company Lola.com, didn’t wait. He opens his laptop on the flight back to Logan. He connected to his Wi-Fi on the jet, created a Google Doc, set up a website, sent an email and started brainstorming. he decided. A monument to the king will take place.
That fateful journey began a years-long quest that culminated Friday with the unveiling of The Embrace, a 22-foot-tall bronze sculpture on Boston Common. This was inspired by a photo of Coretta and Martin hugging upon learning that they won the Nobel Peace Prize. award. By that point, English seemed to have enlisted much of the city in this ambitious vision, and he is now just one of many players pursuing this audacious dream.
But it would not have happened without his patience and generosity.
On that day in 2017, about a week after his plane landed, English met with then-Mayor Marty Walsh’s policy chief, Joyce Linehan. Others have attempted to build a major King’s monument in Boston, but those efforts have never been successful. There is an outdoor sculpture resembling a dove in flight, representing the .) Linehan told Walsh that English was the kind of person who could pull it off.
English, who made a fortune selling Kayak to Priceline 10 years ago, promised $1 million to get the business started. English didn’t say it at the time, but it was ready to boost funding to make up for the shortfall. But he also wanted to involve others. It wasn’t about him, it was about the city.
Walsh immediately accepted English’s dream. The proposal came to the mayor’s attention just before his annual address at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Walsh has previously encouraged Chamber members to prioritize diversity and equity. King’s memorial fits the theme perfectly, and Walsh announced his plans at the Chamber of Commerce on September 20th.
English originally thought it could be built by MLK Day in January 2019. She advised English to reach out to the city’s black leaders and gain their involvement. Hold a community meeting to review where the monument should be placed and what it should look like. As co-chairs, English quickly recruited Liz Walker, a former television journalist and pastor, and Jeffrey Brown, pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, where Martin Luther King his Jr. preached.
Soon, English was touring the Common with Walsh’s Parks Commissioner, Chris Cook, scouting for potential sites. Cook worked under former Mayor Tom Menino, and the site of the King’s memorial at City Hall Plaza was chosen, but those plans fell through in the Great Depression. He had money to contribute to English. More importantly, Cook recalled, he had a tenacity and a zeal that was hard to reject.
The Embrace concept by artist Hank Willis Thomas and the MASS design group was selected from over 130 submissions in a 2019 city-sponsored competition. on the Freedom Trail, and he famously had Martin Luther King speak there in 1965. But he wanted something that would stand out and spark discussion, rather than just blend in.
Meanwhile, the community wanted something that honored the Kings’ legacy in Roxbury. Plans for the Inequality Research Center are now included. As a result, the funding far exceeds the approximately $10 million that went into building and maintaining the monument. In particular, Boston businesses ripped their checkbooks after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston, said at least $31 million has been put into it so far. (Embrace Boston, now part of the Boston Foundation, will eventually become an independent non-profit organization.) The memorial is just a starting point.
English is now 59 and thinking about his own legacy. He’s still busy in the startup world. He recently launched his restaurant review app called Deets. But he also finds deep satisfaction in his nonprofit work. A Haitian charity called Summit Education, an annual “Winter Walk” to raise awareness about homelessness in Boston and soon New York, is helping young people with a new project with Massachusetts General Hospital. Bipolar disorder. (English is open about his own struggle with bipolar disorder.)
Then Embrace Boston.
English grew up in West Roxbury during desegregation. His childhood bus crisis is still fresh in his mind. So the normally gregarious entrepreneur had trouble explaining the sentiments of those who gathered at his common in Boston on Friday for the unveiling of the memorial service. He said it was overwhelming to stand in the January fog. Under the tent behind him gathered various leaders in politics, business and community.
He glanced at Embrace. He imagined what it would be like to return on his warm and sunny June day and eavesdrop on the conversations of visitors wondering about this unique structure.
who knows? Maybe it will inspire some of them to have their own daring thoughts, their own crazy dreams.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. follow him on twitter @John Chest.
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