In the early 1950s, Dorchester was also a center of civil rights activism. Martin Luther King Jr. lived there for much of the time he attended Boston University for his PhD. "With Boston’s Baptist community riveted by his preaching and Coretta King at his side, King’s circle grew. The Dorchester apartment drew friends and followers like a magnet, according to and roommate John Bustamante, with 'untold numbers of visitors coming from the other schools.' The roommates housed and fed the visitors, who would join in civil rights discussions."