Glen Cove street named after Martin Luther King

The cloth was pulled Saturday from a sign in downtown Glen Cove, revealing the new name of Bridge Street: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Way.

The idea has been around for years. But speaking to about 40 people, who clapped when the new sign was unveiled, Mayor Ralph Suozzi said it was time to rename the street where Glen Cove holds its annual Martin Luther King parade. The timing was right, he said, in part because the nation is honoring the slain civil rights leader this year, having dedicated in October the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington.

Naming Bridge Street after King also was fitting because, "Bridges unite us," Suozzi said.

After the ceremony, Sheryl Goodine, one of those who lobbied officials for the change, stood looking at the new sign, which hangs over the old Bridge Street sign, repeating, "Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful."

It was also appropriate for Suozzi to dedicate the sign, she said. The town began holding the annual MLK parade in 1984, two years before the declaration of Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday. Goodine, said her father, James Davis, then the head of the Glen Cove NAACP, marched in that first parade along with Glen Cove's mayor at the time, Vincent "Jimmy" Suozzi, father of the current mayor.

"Those two are looking down right now and having a grand old time," she said.

Goodine said at the ceremony that naming the street after King will help honor those who have fought for civil rights. "Each of us stands on the shoulders of someone else who went before us," she said. And, she added, it will inspire others to teach future generations about King. "We must talk to the young people so they don't look at that sign and say, 'Who was that guy?' "