The Boston School Committee is considering renaming the McKinley special education schools after Melvin King, a longtime politician, activist, educator, and lifelong resident of the South End, the neighborhood housing the complex of schools.
King, a graduate and former teacher at Boston Technical High School, now the John D. O’Bryant School, was the first person of color to make it to the final election for mayor of Boston, losing to Raymond Flynn in 1983. King, now 94, also served as a state representative from 1973 to 1982 and was the director of the Urban League of Greater Boston. In the 1960s, King led a protest known as Tent City, for those who camped on the site of a South End parking lot to protest urban renewal plans; King was arrested, but the site eventually became low- and moderate-income housing. He was also a friend of the McKinley schools, helping to bring the Fab Lab…
