Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital

The Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center, formerly known as Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center, Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center (King/Drew), and later Martin Luther King Jr.–Harbor Hospital (MLK–Harbor or King–Harbor), was a public urgent care center and outpatient clinic and former hospital in Willowbrook, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, California, north of the city of Compton and south of the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Founded as a major public hospital, it was shut down in August 2007 because of its poor record of patient care. The urgent care center and outpatient clinic, however, remained operating on the site. In 2014, a smaller hospital under a partnership between Los Angeles County and the University of California opened as a nonprofit organization governed by a seven-member board of directors.MLK Outpatient Center was operated by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. In the 2000s, widely publicized problems related to incompetence and mismanagement caused the hospital to undergo a radical overhaul, which reduced the number of beds from 233 to 42 before it finally closed.Since 2004, 260 hospital staffers, including 41 doctors, had been fired or had resigned as a result of disciplinary proceedings. To alleviate the impact on the community of this large loss of capacity, the Los Angeles County Medical Alert Center contracts ambulances take approximately 250 patients per month to other local hospitals.At the beginning of the 21st century and before its crisis, MLK–MACC (then MLK/Drew) had 537 beds, was the teaching hospital of the adjacent Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, spread over a 38.5-acre (156,000 m2) site, which included a dormitory for medical residents, employed 2,238 full-time personnel, and in 2004 treated 11,000 inpatients and 167,000 outpatients. Located near high-crime streets, the hospital had a very active trauma unit. In 2003, it handled 2,150 gunshot wounds and other life-threatening injuries. Because of the large number of gunshot wounds the trauma unit saw, the US military sent their trauma teams to MLK/Drew for training.

King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science is a magnet high school of the Los Angeles Unified School District, located in Willowbrook, unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States.It is affiliated with both the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science is a private university in Willowbrook, California, focused on health sciences. It was founded in 1966 in response to inadequate medical access within the Watts region of Los Angeles, California. The university is named in honor of Charles R. Drew.

Rancho Tajauta was a 3,560-acre (14.4 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Anastasio Avila. The grant was named for the Gabrielino/Tongva place name of Tajáuta. The grant encompassed present-day Willowbrook and Watts.

Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station (formerly Imperial/Wilmington/Rosa Parks station) is a major transport hub and Los Angeles Metro Rail station that serves the A Line and C Line. The station, located at the intersection of Imperial Highway and Wilmington Avenue in the Willowbrook community of Los Angeles County, is a major transfer point for commuters.As a major transfer station, Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station also acts as a major bus hub, serving many bus routes operated by Metro and other regional/municipal transit agencies. The station also has park and ride facilities, including 975 parking spaces and 4 bike lockers. To the east of the station is the Metro Rail Operations Center, which is the dispatch hub for all Metro Rail train operators. The station is located in unincorporated Willowbrook, near the Los Angeles community of Watts in the South Los Angeles region. It is directly across the street from the Imperial Courts Housing Project, which is located within the City of Los Angeles. The C Line platform for this station is located in the middle of the I-105 Freeway. The station's official name memorializes Rosa Parks, an African-American civil rights activist. From the Blue (A) Line's opening on July 14, 1990 until the Green (C) Line opened on August 12, 1995 the Blue Line station platform was known as Imperial station while the Green Line station platform was planned to be called Wilmington station and then the station was called Imperial/Wilmington station from the Green Line's opening in 1995 until it was changed to its current name in 2011.

Nickerson Gardens is a 1,066-unit public housing apartment complex at 1590 East 114th Street in Watts, Los Angeles, California. Nickerson Gardens is the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River and was the first home of many notable people, including Jazz Joy and Roy Global Radio host Roy O’Dell Gray, who, according to Hollywood insiders, is the first cousin of Mary Mary Super Producer Warryn Campbell.

Hawkins House of Burgers is a hamburger restaurant in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It traces its beginnings to 1939 and has seen many events, such as the Watts and 1992 Los Angeles riots. The restaurant "has come to represent a symbol of resilience in the community," according to Thrillist.

Willowbrook, alternatively named Willow Brook, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 24,295 at the 2020 census, down from 35,983 at the 2010 census. Willowbrook is the home to the newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center. Also located in Willowbrook is the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, which oversees residency training programs, allied health programs, a medical education program (jointly with the University of California, Los Angeles), a medical magnet high school, the area Head Start program, and various centers for health disparities research. Due to severe deficiencies, the former King/Drew Medical Center lost accreditation of several key residency training programs.

Centennial High School is a public high school in Compton, California, operating as part of the Compton Unified School District. Construction of Centennial High School began in 1953, and it was erected in 1954, with its first graduating class in 1954. It is the smallest of the three high schools in the Compton Unified School District, which also includes Compton High School and Manuel Dominguez High School.

Imperial Courts is a public housing project located in Watts, Los Angeles, California. It is located at 11541 Croesus Avenue on Imperial Highway, between Grape Street and Mona Boulevard, near the 105 Freeway. The federally subsidized project of 498 units was completed in May 1944. It is operated by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. The project is predominantly inhabited by persons of African-American and Mexican descent, who in 1991 constituted 88 percent of the population. It is one of the largest housing projects west of the Mississippi.

Verbum Dei Jesuit High School, nicknamed the Verb, is a private Catholic all-boys college preparatory school sponsored by the Society of Jesus in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1962 by the Society of the Divine Word to serve students from the Watts neighborhood and the surrounding communities who are economically and academically under-served. Verbum Dei is known for sending its graduates to some of the more selective colleges in the United States and has held a 100% success rate for sending graduating seniors to college.

The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or Nuestro Pueblo ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the artist's original residential property in Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States. The entire site of towers, structures, sculptures, pavement and walls were designed and built solely by Sabato ("Simon" or "Sam") Rodia (1879 or 1886 to 1965), an Italian immigrant construction worker and tile mason, over a period of 33 years from 1921 to 1954. The tallest of the towers is 99.5 feet (30.3 m). The work is an example of outsider art (or Art Brut) and Italian-American naïve art.The Watts Towers were designated a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark in 1990. They are also a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and one of nine folk art sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles. The Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park encompasses the Watts Towers site.