It all started with a dream.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s impact is now felt everywhere, from politics and social justice movements to the arts.
The African American civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner known for his impassioned speeches, was assassinated in 1968.
King would have turned 97 years old Thursday, Jan. 15. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, marked on the third Monday of January, honors his legacy, his message of non-violent fight for racial equality and freedom.
Across Southern California, people continue to recognize King with visual tributes, monuments and reclaimed public spaces across the region.
Here are several, from Orange to Los Angeles to San Bernardino, that you can see for yourselves.
Los Angeles County
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Tree Grove
Inside the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, 4100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles
Overlooking downtown Los Angeles, the grove was built at the highest point of the recreation area in Baldwin Hills.
The monument features an obelisk — similar to the Washington Monument — inscribed with some of King’s messages, which Los Angeles County officials say evoke memories of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered the historic “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall. Leaders dedicated the site in 2018 with a march attended by hundreds.
“I believe once you experience the Memorial Tree Grove here at the very top of Hahn Park, you will find few other spaces that so peacefully and so exquisitely facilitate reflection in his honor,” then-L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said at the dedication. “There’s no other individual who has inspired us, challenged us, and motivated us to create a world filled with more civility, equality and dignity.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Park and statue
1950 Lemon Ave., Long Beach
The city’s 1.17-acre park was dedicated June 13, 1964, as 19th Street Playground. After King’s assassination in 1968, the name of the park was changed to honor him.
A sculpture of King giving a sermon, by Larry D. Stokes, was installed in 1986 through community funding and has seen incidents of vandalism and theft. A plaque at the base of the statue, honoring the donors and supporters of the monument with a quote from King, was also stolen. The park has been expanded for recreation and is the site of Long Beach’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.
“Peace Makers” mural by Jose M. Loza
Seaside Park, 14th Street and Chestnut Avenue, Long Beach
The park, located on the site of an old hospital, was developed by the city and features two murals by artist Jose Loza.
The 325-foot long, 10-foot high “Peace Makers” mural covers a full wall that borders the soccer field, and depicts King with the quote, “At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love,” from his 1957 article “Nonviolence and Racial Justice” published in Christian Century, a liberal weekly religious magazine.
Loza’s mural features 11 figures from throughout history — including Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Cesar E. Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Chuon Nath, Dolores Huerta and Harvey Milk — whose legacies included messages of peace, equality and non-violence.
King Memorial at the Compton Civic Center
205 S. Willowbrook Drive, Compton
The focus of an outdoor plaza at the city’s Civic Center is an angled white sculpture arranged in a circle and converging at the top to reflect the form of a mountain — a reference to King’s words: “I’ve been to the mountaintop.” Designed by artist Gerald Gladstone and architect Harold L. Williams in 1978, the sculpture takes a late-modernist style.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
South Los Angeles
A major artery going through South L.A., the 7-mile-long Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard runs east and west.
It was initially called Santa Barbara Boulevard until Jan. 15, 1983, King’s birthday.
Local leaders and organizations, led by prominent bail bondsman and activist Celes King III — no relation to King — pushed for the name change, three years before President Ronald Reagan declared King’s birthday a national holiday. Freedom Square intersection — at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards — features a bust of Celes King. The street is also a hub for L.A.’s longstanding Kingdom Day Parade, one of the oldest celebrations honoring King.
“Only Light, Only Love” mosaic mural by Shinique Smith
At the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. L.A. Metro station, along the K Line
A glass mosaic at the L.A. Metro rail station’s Martin Luther King Jr. stop along the K Line features abstract calligraphy fragments of King’s words within the piece.
The colorful and reflective artwork, unveiled with the Metro station in 2022, aims to reach transit riders on the busy line. Smith said she was inspired by King’s quotation: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Smith said she used the passage “as a connective line in the composition that created a rhythm of movement and the heartbeat throughout the piece.”
“Rev. King Jr. and Dr. Drew” by Tina Allen
King Drew Magnet High School, 1601 E. 120th St., Los Angeles
Installed in 1998, a 30-foot high relief sculpture is on the southwest building facade of King Drew Magnet High School in South L.A.’s Willowbrook area.
It features King with the school’s namesake, Dr. Charles R. Drew, who was known for his contributions to science and medicine. The late Allen sculpted prominent African Americans throughout history.
Inland Empire
Martin Luther King Jr. statue
9th and Main streets in downtown Riverside, near Riverside City Hall
The figure of King bearing the phrase “I Have a Dream…” is on downtown Riverside’s Civil Rights Walk, which features six bronze statues of prominent civil rights leaders between the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa and City Hall.
The statue was erected in 1998 with help from the city’s African American Historical Society, led by community leader Rose Mayes. It depicts King walking, his arms around two children, and a cloak with reliefs of figures from Black history, including Rosa Parks. The historical society has been fundraising to enhance the statue — which has been the target of vandalism — and the plaza around it.
San Bernardino City Hall, 290 N. D St., San Bernardino
An 11-foot-tall, 1-ton-pound statue of King wearing a suit and tie, with his wounded left hand on his chest, is at the entrance of San Bernardino City Hall.
It was sculpted by Julian Martinez Soto. A nearby plaque titled “The Dreamer” details the statue’s origin, which came about with help from community funding. It calls King a “legend of non-violent revolution that changed the course of American history.”
The statue was dedicated and unveiled in November 1981.
Martin Luther King High School
9301 Wood Road, Riverside
The campus opened in the Orangecrest neighborhood on Riverside’s south side in August 1999 after some early controversy.
The Riverside Unified School District board voted unanimously in 1998 to name the school after King — a story that made national news after some resistance from residents who wanted the school’s name to reflect the region’s citrus heritage or to have a Riverside connection. Some foes suggested that naming the school for King could jeopardize college admissions for students, because of possible assumptions they had attended a mostly Black school.
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
This east-to-west street runs between Kansas Avenue and the 215 Freeway.
Stretching nearly 2 miles through a part of Riverside’s once-predominantly Black Eastside neighborhood, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was renamed from Pennsylvania Avenue in 1993 after calls from community members and The Martin Luther King Jr. Visionaries.
One city commissioner, Ronald Green, said that putting a Black leader’s name on a street leading into a diverse neighborhood had racial overtones. The street also connects UC Riverside with downtown Riverside, where it becomes 14th Street.
The street is on the route of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Walk-A-Thon each January.
Orange County
Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. bust at Chapman University
315 E. Palm Ave., Orange
A bust of King, located in front of the school’s Moulton Hall, was sculpted by Ed Dwight and dedicated Jan. 1, 1994.
It commemorates the civil rights leader’s visit to the private university for a 1961 lecture.
That speech — delivered two years prior to the March on Washington and before the height of King’s fame — was about current events, racial equality and King’s non-violent ethos. King also visited Orange County in March 1968 to attend the annual California Democratic Council convention at the Anaheim Convention Center.