Mel King was way ahead of his time – his breakthrough as a mayoral finalist in 1983 came decades before Boston finally elected its first non-white mayor.
The civil rights activist paved the way and influenced generations of other Black politicians and progressives, including current Mayor Michelle Wu, the city’s first Asian American chief executive.
They all owe a debt of gratitude to King, who will be memorialized on Tuesday in a funeral service at Union United Methodist Church in the South End.
King leaves a legacy of being a principled and civil politician and public servant, one that is a rare combination today.
He wasn’t a backslapping pol who talked out of both sides of his mouth. He didn’t have to shout or attack to get noticed.
King was in many ways a visionary who spoke out for housing rights, civil rights and voting rights long before it became fashionable. He was the grandfather of the Rainbow Coalition that the Rev. Jesse Jackson adopted nationally.
King also provides a lesson for politicians not to give up the first time they lose an election. He ran unsuccessfully for School Committee three times in the 1960’s before getting elected to the state House of Representatives in 1973, serving until 1982.
In many ways King strongly influenced Mayor Ray Flynn, a friend who beat him in that 1983 race and quickly adopted many of King’s social justice initiatives. King deserved an appointment from Flynn after the election.
He made Flynn a better mayor and candidate than he would have been. Both deserve credit for calming racial tensions during the campaign.
In his familiar bow tie, King ran a principled and thoughtful mayoral campaign, one of the most principled in the city’s history. He knew he probably wasn’t going to win but he didn’t become bitter or launch wild attacks.
Yet King was sometimes marginalized and patronized by white politicians who didn’t see him as a political threat.
In the 1983 race, King made history by making the two-person final but he was trounced by Flynn in the general election. Today King likely would have won.
After the election, King stayed in touch with the community as an activist and got a job as a professor of Urban Planning at MIT.
King didn’t abandon his principles or cash out the way many politicians do today. He didn’t exploit his standing in the community for his own self-gain.
He truly was on a mission to make his community and city a better place to live. It may have taken him years to fully realize those goals but in the end he was successful.
The only thing King didn’t get to see was Boston voters electing their first Black mayor. But that will happen eventually, too.