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The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Coretta Scott met in Boston. Ph.D candidate King had friends in Roxbury, including Herman Hemingway of Ruthven St (where my cousin Stuey was born), & Rev. Michael Haynes of Twelfth Baptist, where King was assoc. minister
Coretta was a couple years older, & studying @ the New England Conservatory of Music (where my Nana Geneva Shaw had attended). She'd gone to Antioch, where a friend & fellow activist was Carol (Kramer) Serling, the Unitarian. Rod's wife.
Coretta also worked, as a maid f/ the Bartol fam on Beacon Hill. Then she gigged f/ the Boston Urban League (the exec. secretary was my cousin Ed Cooper). Doc had already dated a Conservatory student, Lavern Weston. They met @ The Western Lunch Box- on Mass. Ave near his crib
Doc asked Mary Louise Powell, a former Conservatory student (& niece-in-law of Dr. Bennie Mays) if she knew any nice Southern colored girls in & around Boston. His sentiment was native Bostonian girls seemed chilly. Powell offered Coretta's phone #. Doc called & said, "I am..."
"...Napoleon @ Waterloo before your charms". Stone Doc. Coretta said "You haven't even met me". First date, he scoops her in his Green Chevy, @ the Conservatory on the Huntington Ave. side. He told gf she had all the qualities he sought in a wife. Day one
She went to Twelfth St. Baptist to hear him preach. They went to hear Arthur Rubinstein @ Symphony Hall. They double dated w/ Lavern Weston & her boyfriend by The Boston Common. They drove to Revere Beach (an amusement park).
They went to Filene's. Coretta moved to 558 Mass, run by The League Of Women For Community Service. My grandmother Geneva Shaw headed the Boston branch of the org, & was sort of the bdg. mgr. Doc moved three blocks away. Easter of '53, the couple got engaged (met late Jan. '52)
In August of '52 Malcolm Little was paroled, & living in Roxbury on Dale St. By March '54 he was minister @ Temple # 11 on The 'Bury's Intervale Street, inside a former Hebrew "seminary". In fall '53 Doc & Coretta lived in Lincoln Apts a block fr. Mass. & Columbus.
Doc began work on his thesis, Corie sub taught @ a few Boston schools. She graduated June 15, 1954. In Oct. '54 they spent two weeks in a Beantown hotel as he typed out his dissertation. Later, he asked Rev. Mike Haynes if he wanted to minister in ATL. Nope.
Haynes is/was the bro. of drummer Roy Haynes. Doc skipped his '55 graduation because Corie was pregnant w/ Yolanda. The couple often returned to the site of their early romance, as activists, upon which they caught up w/ old friends.
When Doc was murdered, his fellow Georgian, James Brown, was scheduled to perform @ the Boston Garden the next night. He did, & agreed to televise the event, which may have saved the city: https://bijanc.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/soul-power-the-night-james-brown-saved-boston/
