The Embrace is a bronze sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas, dedicated on Boston Common in January, 2023. It commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, and depicts four intertwined arms, representing the hug they shared after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Seen from one side, it takes on the shape of a heart. From another angle, some have complained, it can appear oddly pornographic. It has been controversial, with some complaining that the disembodied arms felt disconcerting or disrespectful.
The sculpture design is intended to emphasize the Kings’ commitment to nonviolence and the importance of love as a motivating factor in their civil rights movement work.
In 1951, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and worked as an assistant minister at Boston’s historic Twelfth Baptist Church. in 1953 married Corretta Scott, then a then a music education student at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was called as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama the next year. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The sculpture sits in the same spot where in 1965 King led 20,000 people in the northeast’s first march of the civil rights era to protest segregation in schools.
