31 Facts About Mel King

Melvin Herbert King was an American politician, community organizer, and educator.

In 1973, King was elected as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives' 9th Suffolk district, a post he held until early 1983.

Mel King was the runner-up in the 1983 Boston mayoral election, against Raymond Flynn.

Mel King's mother, Ursula, was born in Guyana, and his father, Watts Mel King, in Barbados.

Mel King's parents met and married in Nova Scotia and immigrated to Boston in the early 1920s.

Mel King 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 1953, Mel 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.

Mel King continued doing community work, focusing on street-corner gangs as Youth Director at the United South End Settlements.

Mel King worked as a community activist, as well as an urban renewal and anti-poverty organizer.

Mel King 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.

In 1967, Mel King became the director of the New Urban League of Greater Boston.

Mel King brought job training for the unemployed and organized the community around public school, employment, and human services delivery issues.

In 1968, Mel King helped organize a sit-in at the Boston Redevelopment Authority office on April 25 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.

In 1973, Mel King was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the 4th Suffolk district; he served until 1982.

Mel King was redistricted to the 9th Suffolk district in 1978.

Mel King finished third in the preliminary election and was eliminated.

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.

Mel King's campaign relied heavily on volunteers, as did the campaign of Flynn.

Mel King's campaign came in a year where Black candidates in other cities had enjoyed success.

Mel King founded the Rainbow Coalition Party in Massachusetts in 1997.

Mel King had used it to describe his coalition of support during his 1983 mayoral campaign, preceding the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign the next year.

Mel King remained active as a member of the Green-Rainbow Party.

Mel King supported the candidacies of other Green-Rainbow Party candidates; Danny Factor for Secretary of the Commonwealth and Ian Jackson for Treasurer.

Mel King endorsed Boston City Council at-large member Sam Yoon for mayor on August 10,2009.

Mel King praised Yoon's vision, his collaborative approach and his focus on improving the educational system in Boston.

Mel King gave a last-minute endorsement to acting mayor Kim Janey before the primary of the 2021 Boston mayoral election.

In 1970, Mel King created the Community Fellows Program in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT.

Mel King served as an adjunct professor of Urban Studies and Planning and director of the Community Fellows Program for twenty-five years until 1996.

Mel King died at his home in Boston's South End on March 28,2023, at the age of 94.

Mel King was survived by his wife, the former Joyce Kenion, whom he married in 1951.