Happy Founders Day — our annual celebration of those that made our institution a reality

On September 28 of every year, we stop to remember the yeoman’s effort it took by a cast of dozens to make our institution, Medgar Evers College, a reality.

It’s a day of thanks, of gratitude, and of celebration.

We are the only four-year institution that carries the name of a Civil Rights leader, and it took community members, politicians and an unwavering tenacity for that to come to fruition.

Our history at Medgar Evers College (a longer version can be found here), started in the early 1960s, when the Central Brooklyn community recognized the need and expressed a desire for a local public college. 

Members of the various community-based organizations constituted the Bedford-Stuyvesant Coalition on Educational Needs and Services, which served as the primary vehicle for interfacing with the Board of Higher Education. After many discussions and much involvement by community residents and the Coalition, the Board of Higher Education, on November 17, 1967, “approved the sponsorship of Community College Number VII, with the indication of an intention to admit students in the Fall of l969.”

On February 13, 1968, the Board of Higher Education announced that the college would be located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. 

On January 27, 1969 the Board approved the establishment of an “experimental four-year college of professional studies offering both career and transfer associate degrees and the baccalaureate degree, to be located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, said college to be established in place of a previously approved but not started new Community College VII, and further directed that the City University Master Plan be amended accordingly.” 

This action was endorsed by action of the Regents on March 20, 1970.

The Board of Higher Education Proceedings of April 14, 1970 reflect the Board action, which modified the 1968 Master Plan to delete Community College Number Seven and listed in lieu thereof under Senior College, “College XVII, Mid-Brooklyn, Initial Facilities, Estimated Cost: $10,000,000.” 

The College was officially established on July 30, 1970 when Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller signed the legislation approving the “establishment of an experimental four-year college of professional studies offering both career and transfer associate degrees and the baccalaureate degree…” 

Finally, on September 28, 1970 the Board of Higher Education approved the recommendation from the College’s Community Council that the name of the college be Medgar Evers College, in honor of the martyred civil rights leader, Medgar Wiley Evers (1925-1963). In recognition of this, September 28th is observed as “Founders Day” at Medgar Evers College.

Today, we stand on the shoulders of the nearly 70 Founders that saw this project to the finish line. They include: 

• Assemblyman Bertram Baker​​
• Mr. Wayne Belgave​​
• Mrs. Louise Bolling​​
• Mr. Sonny Carson​​
• Mr. Luis Quera Chiesa​​
• Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm​​
• Mr. Randy Choppin​
• Mr. Randall M. Coppin​​
• Mrs. Elmira Corsey​​
• Mrs. Evelyn Dixon​​
• Mr. John Enoch​​
• Mr. Herman Flowers​​
• Assemblyman Thomas R. Fortune​​
• Mrs. Phyllis Gloster​​
• Mrs. Bessie Glover​​
• Mrs. Louise Glover​​
• Honorable Edward Griffith​​
• Mr. George Harvey​​
• Mr. Welsey McD. Holder​​
• Mr. William Howard​​
• Mrs. Munneola P. Ingersoil​​
• Mr. Charles Innis​​
• Mrs. Harold Jacobs​​
• Ms. Anna Jefferson​​
• Dr. Robert Johnson​​
• Mr. Norman Johnson, Esq.​​
• Mr. Thomas Russell Jones​​
• Mrs. Charles Joshua​​
• Dr. J. Oscar Lee​​
• Honorable Woodrow Lewis​​
• Mrs. Pearl Liberman​​
• Mr. Eldon A. McIntyre​​
• Mr. Joseph Mahood, Jr.​​
• Ms. Jacqueline Maloney​​
• Mr. Warren Marr, III​​
• Mr. Job Mashariki​​
• Mr. Lewis Matthews​​
• Dr. Marcella Maxwel​​
• Rev. Ernest Middleton​​
• Mr. Donald Moore​​
• Mrs. Waple Newton​​
• Rev. Clarence Norman Sr.​​
• Honorable Luis Olmedo​​
• Mrs. Evelyn Ortner​​
• Senator Major Owens​​
• Dr. Peterson​​
• Honorable Mary Pinkett​​
• Mr. Walter Pickston​​
• Honorable Cesar Quinones​​
• Rev. Sandy Ray​​
• Mrs. Elsie Richardson​​
• Assemblyman Victor Robles​​
• Mrs. Sullivan Robinson​​
• Mrs. Lucille Rose​​
• Mr. Henri C. Rosemond​​
• Mrs. Ella Sease​​
• Judge James Shaw, Jr.​​
• Rev. F.G. Sherrill​​
• Senator Waldaba Stewart​​
• Mr. Marshall Stukes​​
• Mr. Carl Theobald​​
• Councilman William Thompson​​
• Honorable Edolphus Towns​​
• Assemblyman Al Vann​​
• Mrs. Clara E. Wade​​
• Mr. Jitu Weusi​​
• Mrs. Beryl Williams​​
• Ms. Thais Wilson​​
• Mr. Assemblyman Samuel D. Wright​