Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (Los Angeles)
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is an east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from Obama Boulevard in Baldwin Village to South Alameda Street in South Los Angeles. 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 Martin [Luther King Jr.|the civil rights leader] reflected the large black community in that part of Los Angeles. The name change effort was headed by Tuskegee Airman 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 1996 television special Bring the Pain, comedian Chris Rock 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, which is an extension of Century Boulevard. 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.