BOSTON (AP) - The life of Martin Luther King Jr. was being honored in Boston and by Boston University, his alma mater, with a day of celebration on Monday while two demonstrations were planned in the city against police brutality on the federal holiday honoring the civil rights leader.
One of the protests was organized by Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
“It is the mass movement sparked in response to police brutality and racism that is the moral compass of the country and the true defender of democracy,” said Brock Satter, one of the organizers of the Boston protest, according to masslive.com.
The “MLK Day March for Justice” was aimed at condemning police brutality as well as the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Many people, including public officials in Massachusetts, have questioned the treatment of the pro-President Donald Trump mob compared to those who demonstrated in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The other protest in Boston on Monday was organized by the Boston chapter of Black Lives Matter, Violence in Boston and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Boston University were presenting the day of celebration in what was the university’s 49th commemoration of King, who earned his doctorate in systematic theology at the school, NBC Boston reported.
The event celebrated “the contributions of the Rev. Dr. King and civil rights leader, activist, and author Coretta Scott King to the Greater Boston community,” Boston University said. Guests included Princeton professor of African American studies Eddie Glaude and Boston University professor and Center for Antiracist Research Founding Director Ibram X. Kendi.
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