On a rainy day in late April 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the Boston Common bandstand and addressed a crowd of 20,000 people who had marched with him from Roxbury.
Sixty years later — on a similarly rainy day — thousands gathered at Trinity Church in the Back Bay and marched to Boston Common in commemoration of that monumental event.
Anniversaries are often a time for celebration, but Martin Luther King III told GBH News that Saturday’s remembrance of the Freedom March was more about re-engagement.
“Because as we take a snapshot of where we are in issues of education, in issues of poverty, in issues that were raised at [the time of the initial Freedom Rally], it feels like we still have a long way to go,” King said.
“It doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been any progress. But it means that at this point it’s almost as if we have to really quadruple our efforts,” he added.
Cambridge native and current Dracut resident Doreen Wade was at the 1965 Freedom Rally, an experience she recalled as inspiring and life-changing. She said she came out to Saturday’s rally because she feels like “we’re going backwards in time.”
“We’re losing rights that we shouldn’t be, we’re losing businesses … and we need to be out here speaking for ourselves and striving hard to make sure we have what we’ve worked hard for,” she said.
Irene Desharnais was also among those 20,000 attendees of the 1965 Freedom Rally. She remembers holding hands with the other marchers.
“I never believed [on] that day that I’d be still saying in 2025, ‘Ain’t done yet,’” Desharnais said. “But I have hope. What gives me hope is the leaders we have in Boston.”
The day began with a march down Boylston Street as chants of “we shall overcome” and “let it shine” reverberated from the crowd. At the Charles Street entrance to the Boston Common, the group stopped and heard from several city leaders, including Mayor Michelle Wu.
Wu formally dedicated that corner as the “1965 Freedom Rally Square,” which is designated with a blue sign on the light pole.
“It was in a church in this very city, in a steeple right down the road that the lanterns were hung that first kindled the flames of democracy,” Wu said. “But it was at this spot 60 years ago that that flame was tended and rekindled.”
Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston, helped lead the march to the Common. He is also one of the co-chairs of Everyone250, an initiative to reshape how Boston tells the story of the American Revolution, with a goal of promoting anti-racism and belonging.
Paris Jeffries told GBH News that with recent cultural shifts in the United States — from the dismantling of affirmative action to institutions eliminating equity measures — commemorative events such as Saturday’s march and rally are pivotal to democracy.
“We’ve seen attacks on some of the major museums and cultural institutions,” he said. “Monuments and memorialization is a part of our collective memory, and it’s up to us as the next generation to ensure the collective memory of where we came from is extended as valuable lessons for the future.”
The rally on the Common included comments from local and state leaders, including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and state Sen. Liz Miranda.
King was one of the final speakers. On the bandstand, King urged that we all should do “a little something to make the world in which we all must live a little better than it was when you arrived.”
“So let’s get to work,” he said.
