King’s assassination eve speech read out loud in Boston

BOSTON (AP) — Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech before his assassination 50 years ago this week has been read out aloud in Boston by dozens of speakers.

They range in age from 5 to 91 and took turns reading short passages from the speech at Monday’s remembrance at City Hall Plaza. The readers included former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who said the speech remains timeless, poetic and prophetic.

King originally delivered the speech in Memphis, Tennessee, on the eve of his April 4, 1968, death.

Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said King’s speeches are as relevant today as they were a half-century ago.

King earned his doctorate in theology at Boston University, met his wife Coretta Scott King in the city and preached at the Twelfth Baptist Church in the Roxbury neighborhood.