BOSTON (AP) – Boston will build a statue honoring the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, who met while both were students in Boston.

Mayor Thomas Menino made the announcement at Twelfth Baptist Church in the city’s Roxbury section, where King once preached. The late civil rights leader’s son, Martin Luther King III, spoke at the announcement.

Menino says a committee will choose an artist and explore locations for the statue, with plans to raise private donations.

King was a young Baptist minister studying at Boston University when he met Coretta Scott, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. King was assassinated in 1968, and his wife died two years ago.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe

AP-ES-01-15-08 1702EST