Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast

Special to the Regional Review

With great reverence and pride in our city, Mayor Michelle Wu joined in Boston’s 56th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast.

Mayor Wu offered these thoughts: Dr. King knew that when fundamental rights come under attack—when hard-won progress must be defended again and again—it becomes difficult to imagine a better future.

But he insisted that we are not truly free until we push beyond mere resistance.

He called us toward creation.

He called us to move forward with the brave work of building the Beloved Community—something too strong for fear to tear down.

And that’s what we are doing in Boston, with the fierce urgency of now. We choose to go forward.

Because a Boston that moves forward together is a Boston no one can control.

We refuse to be defined by what we oppose.

We choose to be measured by what we create.

If Dr. King’s life taught us one thing, it’s that history does not move on its own.

So let us march forward together in the footsteps of those who set the standard here in Boston: Prince Hall. Elma Lewis. Melnea Cass. Napoleon Jones-Henderson. Allan Rohan Crite. Reverend Dr. Michael E. Haynes, and so many more.

And let us march with a new generation urging us forward.

Thank you to everyone who came together to celebrate and remember Dr. King this morning.