Portion of Buffalo Street to Be Renamed ‘Black Lives Matter’ Way

The Buffalo Common Council has voted to rename a portion of a Buffalo street, which is currently  named after and alleged racist, to 'Black Lives Matter' Way.

Fillmore Avenue will be known as 'Black Lives Matter Way,' thanks to the Common Council's vote on Tuesday, according to WIVB.  The portion of the street that runs from Main Street to Seneca Street will receive the new name.  A Frederick Law Olmsted school student named Mekhi Edwards wrote the Council to make the suggestion.

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Millard Fillmore was also the 13th President of the United States.  He was perceived to be supportive of slave owners and even passed a law that prohibited people from helping slaves escape.

"As vice president, Fillmore quietly expressed his support of a compromise in slavery legislation and thus appeared sympathetic to slave-owning interests. During Fillmore’s single term as president, he passed the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), which made it a crime to support slaves trying to escape to free territories." ~ History.com

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Thu Buffalo student asked for a street to be named 'Black Lives Matter' in June of this year. According to WGRZ, no date has been announced yet for the change to take place.

Common Council President Darius Pridgen introduced the resolution, which stated, in part,

Whereas Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, who strives to combat and counter acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination;