Mel King
Melvin Herbert King (born 20 October 1928) is an American politician, community organizer, and educator, who holds the position of Senior Lecturer Emertius at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their Department of Urban Studies and Planning. In 1973, King was elected as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives' 9th Suffolk district, a post he held until early 1983. King was the runner-up in the 1983 Boston mayoral election, against Raymond Flynn. King, a lifelong resident of South End neighborhood of Boston, has been active in creating community programs and institutions for low-income people  in the city, and he is the founder and current director of the South End Technology Center. Early years. King's mother, Ursula, was born in Guyana, and his father, Watts King, in Barbados. His parents met and married in Nova Scotia and immigrated to Boston in the early 1920s. Born in the South End neighborhood, King was one of eleven children, only nine of whom survived past infancy. He graduated from Boston Technical High School in 1946 and then from Claflin College in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics. In 1951, he  received a Master of Arts degree in education from Boston State College, and then taught math, first at Boston Trade High School and at his alma mater, Boston Technical High School. In 1953, King left the classroom to work with at-risk students, becoming Director of Boy's Work at Lincoln House, a settlement house in the South End. He continued doing community work, focusing on street-corner gangs as Youth Director at the United South End Settlements (USES). King also worked as a community activist, as well as an urban renewal and anti-poverty organizer. He was fired by  USES when he promoted neighborhood control over government control, but was later rehired after community protests over his firing and was given the job of community organizer. King then founded the Community Assembly for a United South End (C.A.U.S.E.) to give tenants and community residents a voice. Political activism. In 1967, King became the director of the New Urban League of Greater Boston. He brought job training for the unemployed and organized the community around public school, employment, and human services delivery issues. In 2003, King created The New Majority – an organization and program uniting Boston's communities of color – Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans – uniting them around candidates for elective office. Boston Redevelopment Authority protests and Tent City. In 1968 Mel King helped organize a sit-in at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) office on Thursday, April 25, 1968 in protest of a planned parking garage that was going to be built at the corner of Dartmouth and Columbus Streets in the South End, a site where housing had been leveled. The next morning, Mel King organized an occupation of the lot. While facing police retaliation, for the next three days between 100 and 400 people occupied the  lot. They built tents and wooden shanties and put up a large sign welcoming the media and visitors to "Tent City." Celtics legend Bill Russell, who owned a South End restaurant, provided food for the protestors. The story received extensive coverage in the local media. In honor of the demonstration, when a housing complex at that site was dedicated on April 30, 1988, it was named "Tent City." Mel King told reporters that the key to the project was convincing ordinary Bostonians that they had to play a role in the development of their neighborhood. Political campaigns, endorsements, and parties . King ran three times for a seat on the Boston School Committee in 1961, 1963, and 1965 – being unsuccessful each time. In 1973, he was elected as a State Representative for the 9th Suffolk District and served in the Massachusetts Legislature until 1982. In 1983, when the incumbent Mayor of Boston, Kevin White, withdrew from contention after 16 years in office, Mel King ran for mayor, the first African-American to run in a final election bid for mayor of Boston, and ultimately against Raymond Flynn. Though King secured the African American vote by wide margins and significant support among  other ethnic groups, King ultimately lost to Flynn, an Irish-Catholic with roots in South Boston. During the 2000 presidential election King endorsed the presidential campaign of Ralph Nader King founded the Rainbow Coalition Party in Massachusetts. In 2002, the Rainbow Coalition Party merged with the Massachusetts Green Party to become the Green-Rainbow Party, the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party of the United States. In 2002, King endorsed Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein for governor of Massachusetts, saying "Jill Stein is the only candidate who will speak truth to power...She's the only one that makes  issues of racism and social justice integral parts of her campaign. King endorsed at-large city-councilor Sam Yoon for Mayor on August 10, 2009. King praised Yoon's vision, his collaborative approach and his focus on improving the educational system in Boston. King remains active as a member of the Green-Rainbow Party. In 2014 he was the Campaign Manager for the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for State Auditor, M.K. Merelice and also supported the candidacies of Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Secretary of State Danny Factor and Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Treasurer Ian Jackson. The Mel King  Institute. The Mel King Institute for Community Building was formed in 2009 by the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Boston, a nonprofit that supports affordable housing and community development. It is a training center and information clearinghouse for community development practitioners. Academic work. In 1970, King created the Community Fellows Program (CFP) in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and director of the Community Fellows Program for twenty-five years until 1996. CFP, a nine-month-long program  brought community organizers and leaders from across America to reflect, research, and study urban community politics, economics, social life, education, housing, and media. In 1981, King's book, "Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development" was published by South End Press. It focused on development in housing, education, employment and politics in Boston from the 1950s through the 1970s. Inspired by young activists, King reprints ‘Chain of Change’ in 2018. Upon his retirement from MIT, King established (in the Tent City context of Boston's Back Bay) the South End Technology Center to provide computer training for low-income  people. In addition to writing "Chain of Change" and journal articles, King has used poetry to share his messages.