Drive to rename landmark over links to slavery
BOSTON — It’s called the Cradle of Liberty because it’s where the American Revolution was energized, and it remains one of the most famous buildings in Boston.
Now, Faneuil Hall has become one of the latest icons embroiled in debate over whether it should be renamed due to its ties to slavery. The building is named for Peter Faneuil, a merchant and slave owner who paid for the structure as a gift to the city.
Across the country, parks, buildings and even a residential college at Yale University have been renamed to erase connections to slavery. But is the effort to rename Faneuil Hall justified?
Faneuil Hall, completed in 1742, was a meeting place for colonists before and during the Revolution. Over the centuries, it played host to others seeking radical societal change, including abolitionists and suffragists. It has been a marketplace, an armory and a banquet hall, and to this day remains a site for political and civic events.
Kevin Peterson of the New Democracy Coalition has been pushing for a new name for about a year.
“For African Americans in Boston, Faneuil Hall stands as an affront to their civic sensibilities,” he said in a letter to Mayor Marty Walsh.
Peterson proposes renaming the building after Crispus Attucks, a black man killed during the 1770 Boston Massacre, generally considered the first casualty of the American Revolution.
Walsh does not back the change.
“Faneuil Hall has become a place where good things have happened: historic speeches such as Frederick Douglass’ call for the end to slavery, the signing of forward-thinking legislation like the Affordable Care Act, and where hundreds of people take their oath of citizenship every year,” the mayor said in a statement. “What we should do instead, is figure out a way to acknowledge the history so people understand it. We can’t erase history, but we can learn from it.”