Originally designed and conceived as a fountain, the King Memorial is a sweeping tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The memorial, commissioned by Los Angeles County and the City of Compton Civic Center Authority, is situated as the focal point of a plaza surrounding the Compton Civic Center and was originally designed to feature a 70-foot stream of water shooting through the center of the structure. The monument derives its symbolic impact from its simplicity of design and clean, straight lines. Arranged in the classically harmonious shape of a circle, multiple identical white panels rise up at varying angles and meet at a central circular form.

Harold L. Williams was the ninth African-American architect to be licensed in Los Angeles. He worked with Paul Williams before moving to the architecture firm of Orr, Strange, and Inslee. In 1960 he established his own architecture firm in partnership with Virgil A. Meeds and Leonard Brunswick. His many projects in Los Angeles include the Compton City Hall (1976), South Central Los Angeles Multiservice and Child Development Center (1976), State Office Building in Van Nuys (1982), and Fire Station Number Three in Compton (1989). Gerald Gladstone (1929-2005) was a Canadian sculptor raised in Toronto. In the 1950s Gladstone exhibited with a group of Toronto artists in a gallery operated by Av Isaacs. He received his first Canada Council of the Arts grant in 1959 and traveled to London, England where he studied with renowned sculptor Henry Moore. Later in 1967, Gladstone was granted three major commissions for Montreal’s Expo 67 and in 2003 he was given a retrospective exhibition by the Art Gallery of Ontario.