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Your morning commute just got a little more historic. Over the weekend, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation officially rechristening the 110th Street-Central Park North subway stop on the 2/3 line as 110th Street-Malcolm X Plaza, a change timed with the 51st Harlem Week Festival and steeped in Civil Rights history.
The renaming plants one of New York’s most famous activists firmly into the city’s transit map, right at the corner of Central Park North and Malcolm X Boulevard (aka Lenox Avenue). It’s also now the closest station to the recently revamped Davis Center at the Harlem Meer, meaning you can hop off the train and be in prime park territory in minutes. And before you panic, no, the routes aren’t changing; your 2 or 3 will still run between 96th and 116th Streets as usual, just with a fresh name on the signs and subway announcements.
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Malcolm X’s connection to Harlem runs deep: He first lived in the neighborhood in 1943 and returned in 1954, remaining there until his assassination in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom. The renaming joins a slate of new honors for the neighborhood, including Hochul’s signing of another bill establishing the Harlem Renaissance Cultural District, stretching from 110th to 155th Streets between Fifth Avenue and the Hudson River. The governor called the area “sacred ground for Black art and culture and music and thought,” likening today’s energy to the creative explosion of the 1920s.
City leaders and community members say the new name is a daily reminder for New Yorkers and visitors alike. “Every rider who passes through will encounter the name of a man who dared to speak truth to power, who demanded dignity for the oppressed, and who inspired generations to rise above adversity,” said Councilmember Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Central Park Five.
For commuters, the update might be as simple as noticing a new placard on the platform. But for Harlem, it’s another step in preserving and promoting the neighborhood’s role in shaping the city—and the country’s—cultural and political history.