Hank Willis Thomas was selected as the winner of a competition for a public monument in Boston to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The Kings met in Boston while he was attending theology school at Boston University and she was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music in the early 1950s. 

The non-profit organization King Boston will place Thomas' 22-foot high memorial sculpture of intertwined arms in Boston Common, with a schedule to unveil it in 2020. The piece was conceived in response to photographs of the Kings locking arms during civil rights-era marches. 

Boston-based firm MASS Design Group will collaborate on the piece with the artist.

Thomas said in a statement: “Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King are monumental examples of the capacity of love to shape society. I can only hope The Embrace can be a reminder and a call to action to each of us to never forget what they’ve taught us.”

The design by Thomas beat over 126 applications.