In the 1950s, the avenue was renamed Highway 54, because of the common misconception on that time that the avenue is 54 km long. Rizalists wanted the avenue's name to remain 19 de Junio, while President Ramon Magsaysay wanted the avenue named after Rizal. Residents of Rizal Province (to which most parts of Metro Manila belonged until the 1970s) wanted the avenue to be named after a Rizaleño: the historian, jurist and scholar named Epifanio de los Santos y Cristóbal. The Philippine Historical Committee (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines), the Philippine Historical Association, the Philippine Library Association, Association of University and College Professors, the Philippine China Cultural Association, and the Philippine National Historical Society, led by fellow Rizaleños Eulogio Rodríguez, Sr. and Juan Sumulong, supported the renaming of Highway 54 to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.