Sumner Avenue (in recent years changed to Marcus Garvey Boulevard) is named after Charles Sumner (born in Boston, Massachusetts January 6, 1811; died March 11, 1874), who was an American politician and statesman from Massachusetts.
Sumner was the leader of anti-slavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate. He was devoted to destroying what he considered the Slave Power, which was the conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty, and he advocated for civil and voting rights for Blacks in America. Most Southerners considered him an enemy, and he even suffered a beating on the floor of the U.S. Senate at the hands of a South Carolina senator.