Reverend Willie Bodrick, Senior Pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021.

In 1951, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled north from his home in Atlanta to attend Boston University, a pursuit that eventually led him to the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, where he preached and worshiped while completing his theology degree. Seventy years later, the Rev. Willie Bodrick II finds himself treading a parallel path—after attending Northeastern School of Law, the Atlanta native is now the fourteenth pastor of the historic Twelfth Baptist Church.

(A prism was used to create the desired effect in camera)