1965 Freedom Rally

On a rainy day in late April 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the Boston Common bandstand and addressed a crowd of 20,000 people who had marched with him from Roxbury. Sixty years later — on a similarly rainy day — thousands gathered at Trinity Church in the Back Bay and marched to Boston Common in commemoration of that monumental event.

In April 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Carter Playground on the edge of Roxbury to Boston Common. It was a rally that called for action on civil rights and segregation in schools.