Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (also known as MLK Blvd or simply King Blvd; originally Santa Barbara Avenue) is an east-west thoroughfare in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

.Map showing MLK Blvd downtown
/ref> It stretches from

Obama Boulevard President Barack Obama Boulevard (commonly known as Obama Boulevard, formerly Rodeo Road) is a major thoroughfare in South Los Angeles. It stretches from Baldwin Hills (past Baldwin Village and Crenshaw Manor) to Leimert Park. History Prev ...

Baldwin Village Baldwin Village is a commercial enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the west of downtown Toronto, within the Grange Park neighbourhood, one block north of Dundas Street West, between Beverley and McCaul Streets. The former mo ...

to South Alameda Street in

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown. It is de ...

. Prior to 1983, the boulevard was known as Santa Barbara Avenue.

Background

Originally 40th Street, it was renamed Santa Barbara Avenue. The street was officially renamed to MLK Blvd on January 15, 1983. The name change to honor the civil rights leader reflected the large black community in that part of Los Angeles. The name change effort was headed by

Tuskegee Airman The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the United States Arm ...

and local businessman Celes King III. The original location of the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel was at the corner of Santa Barbara Avenue and LaSalle Avenue in Chesterfield Square. In a stand-up routine on the television special '' Bring the Pain,'' comedian

Chris Rock Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He first gained prominence for his stand-up routines in the 1980s in which he tackled subjects including race relations, human sexuality, and obse ...

once said, "Martin Luther King stood for nonviolence ... Now what's Martin Luther King? A street ... if you on Martin Luther King Boulevard, there’s some violence going down." MLK Boulevard in Los Angeles is different than the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in

Lynwood, California Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 67,265, down from 69,772 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Lynwood is located nea ...

, which is an extension of

Century Boulevard Century Boulevard is a major east–west thoroughfare in the southern portion of Los Angeles, California. Century Boulevard acts as a continuation of Tweedy Boulevard at Alameda Street in South Gate in its east end (Tweedy Boulevard in its ...

. The City of Los Angeles also honored King by establishing the "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Tree Grove" in the

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, or Kenneth Hahn Park, is a state park unit of California in the Baldwin Hills Mountains of Los Angeles. The park is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. As one of the largest ...

Public transit

MLK Blvd is served by

Metro Local The Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Metro Bus operates in the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, and th ...

line 40. The

K Line is a Japanese transportation company. It owns a fleet that includes dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals. It used to be the fourteenth largest contai ...

has a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

under at

Crenshaw Boulevard Crenshaw Boulevard is a north–south thoroughfare that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a route in the west-central part of Los Angeles, California, United States. The street extends between Wilshire Boulevard in Mid-W ...

References

{{Streets in Los Angeles Streets in Los Angeles Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles Crenshaw, Los Angeles

Background

Public transit

See also

References