MTA To Rename Two Brooklyn Subway Stations After Medgar Evers College

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Medgar Evers College, two subway stations in Brooklyn will be renamed after the historically Black CUNY institution that honors the civil rights pioneer, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today.

The Franklin Avenue and President Street subway stations in Crown Heights--which service the 2, 3, 4, 5, and S lines-- will be renamed the Franklin Avenue-Medgar Evers College station and President Street-Medgar Evers College station, respectively. All maps, signage, and other MTA items will be updated across the system to reflect the updated name change.

The last time a station was renamed was in 2012, when the Atlantic Avenue station was renamed the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center hub that runs on the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q, R, and W lines.

In a statement, Cuomo said the renaming of the stations illustrates an embrace of "our diversity, which will always be our greatest strength, in our public spaces."

The renaming was made possible through legislation proposed by Assembly Member Diana Richardson and state Senator Zellnor Myrie, which came with a $250,000 earmark from Richardson's office to update the stations.

"That this is happening during this critical period of change in our nation's history is serendipitous. I am confident that the community will join me in celebrating this well-deserved recognition of the college and its namesake," Richardson said in a statement.

Evers, an NAACP leader credited with desegregating the University of Mississippi by applying to law school there, was assassinated by a white supremacist in the June of 1963 in Mississippi.

"As a neighborhood stalwart since 1970, Medgar Evers College is synonymous with Crown Heights, and by extension, we are inextricably linked to the subway stations that serve our community," said Medgar Evers College President Rudolph F. Crew, Ed.D.

Reena Evers-Everette, Evers's daughter, said she "We hope that the station renaming will serve as a longstanding reminder to the public that transition is constant and that we must work continually toward making the world a better place."