Melvin Herbert King was an American politician, community organizer, and educator best known for being the first Black mayoral finalist in Boston’s history, receiving a strong 20 percent of the ballots cast by white voters. King attended Claflin University in Orangeburg, where he was captain of the football team graduating in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a year later received a master’s in education from Boston Teachers College. He taught at two local high schools before bec... moreMelvin Herbert King was an American politician, community organizer, and educator best known for being the first Black mayoral finalist in Boston’s history, receiving a strong 20 percent of the ballots cast by white voters. King attended Claflin University in Orangeburg, where he was captain of the football team graduating in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a year later received a master’s in education from Boston Teachers College. He taught at two local high schools before becoming a social worker. King was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1973 to 1982, where he led the passage of laws creating nonprofit agencies that helped finance and renovate substantial amounts of affordable housing. For that he was referred to as the father of affordable housing in Boston. King taught urban studies and planning department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1970 to 1996. In 1997, he created the South End Technology Center at Tent City, which offers community residents free or low-cost training in computer technology. On top of that, King founded the Rainbow Coalition Party in Massachusetts. He authored Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development and in 2021 an intersection in Boston's South End was named the "Melvin H. 'Mel' King Square" in his honor.
