King Backs Minority and Poor Voters

Boston mayoral candidate Melvin H. King last night condemned Reagan Administration arms policy and asserted underprivileged groups' rights and need for self-awareness.

The Science Center audience of about 200 students, Harvard staff and other King supporters chanted the mayoral finalist's name as he entered the auditorium, and often broke into applause during the course of the address.

King emerged earlier this month from a field of seven candidates to become the first Black ever to win a spot in a Boston mayoral final. The election will take place November 15.

The candidacy is now labelled "the rainbow coalition," symbolizing King's support for groups which he said have not been represented in government previously--minorities, the underprivileged and students.

Activism

In the speech, sponsored by the Black Students' Association, he said the inspiration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott were forces that had galvanized the movement toward action and "self-awareness," not only among minorities but also among all underrepresented people.

As he cited the examples of disabled Bostonians blocking MBTA construction and demanding that handicapped access ramps be installed, and of Chinatown residents resisting the expansion of a medical center in their neighborhood, the audience broke into applause and calls of approval.

He went on to say that "every gay and lesbian should come out of the closet," and praised the progress of these groups in asserting their rights over the last 10 years.

In Boston, King said, the city's underrepresented poor must take a more active role in government. The city is disregarding their interests, he said, when 5000 units of housing remained abandoned because homeless families can not afford to live in them.

The candidate sparked 20 seconds of applause and anti-Reagan slurs from the audience when he drew a connection between the need for minority coalitions to insert their interests and the need for all Americans to oppose what he said is a world trend towards militarism.

"We must build a worldwide peace movement," he said, adding, "We must stop the trend which can destroy us ultimately."

He cited the conflicts in Grenada, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq as examples of military engagements advancing the interests of neither side.

King also stressed that opposition to militarism must begin in urban areas before it has national and world impact.

The "rainbow coalition" will help to inspire this opposition, he said, adding, "We will win with a movement we can take around the world."

The speech was followed by a short standing ovation. After it, King attended a Kennedy School cocktail party given annually by an organization of Harvard's Black faculty members and administrators