The Boston City Council on Oct. 25 approved a resolution calling for changing the name of Faneuil Hall, an iconic landmark downtown named after Peter Faneuil, a slave owner and prosperous participant in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The resolution was filed and successfully guided to passage, 10-3, under the fearless leadership of Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson of Roxbury. Largely symbolic, the move to change the name was conceived and organized by The New Democracy Coalition, which mobilized a persistent group of anti-racism activists, clergy, community organizers, and union and healthcare workers.

The New Democracy Coalition in 2018 called for Boston reparations in connection with replacing Peter Faneuil’s name on the city-owned building. The next year, a slave auction reenactment was held at Faneuil Hall as a part of a protest and a citywide teaching demonstration. The group then subsequently called for a boycott of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace nearby.

Last year, activists connected to the effort secured an official apology from the Council and Mayor Michelle Wu for the city’s participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The apology led directly to the creation of the Boston Reparations Task Force empaneled earlier this year.

The resistance to the name change has been significant. On the other hand, Faneuil Hall is a national landmark where advocates, including abolitionists and suffragists, have championed meaningful social change. The Hall attracts an estimated 20 million visitors each year.

Peter Faneuil’s crimes against humanity are worth our scrutiny.

As we reorganize our values around anti-Black racism following the police lynching of George Floyd, it is appropriate to engage in acts of deep reflection and racial reckoning. Just as residents in southern U.S. cities have been removing Confederate statues and reimagining public spaces with an eye toward reparations, Bostonians must also create opportunities to reevaluate the anti-Black animus of their past as an opportunity for social and racial reconstruction. This is the point of the campaign against the Hall’s current name.

That campaign is not about the politics of racial resentment, where Blacks settle the score with whites for the oppression Blacks suffered under white supremacy in the forms of slavery and systemic and structural racism. Nor is the campaign predicated upon elevating specific symbols over others. Instead, activists are seeking to advance the salient goals of building a true multi-racial democracy.

As things now stand, Boston persists in a condition of untenable racial stratification along the Black-white continuum: The Black morbidity rate is stark when compared to whites, exposing a health care system that privileges white personhood; the net worth divide between Black and white families remains ostentatiously tilted in favor of whites; Black men are more likely to die in the city than white counterparts; whites lead Blacks in high school graduation rates across public schools.

To address these disparities, clergy have chained themselves to Faneuil Hall. Other activists have engaged in sit-ins outside Wu’s office, been arrested and jailed. More than a few Bostonians have protested at the Faneuil Hall site, at one time participating in a mock trial where Peter Faneuil was convicted of human trafficking.

Clearly, a deep conversation around the intractable forms of Boston racism is needed. But we must be careful. This conversation must avoid generalization and cliche, which, in our city’s past, have precluded substantive dialogue and problem-solving.

The debate and dialogue we call for must instead be tethered to a commitment of unabashed historical truth-telling about the city’s legacy of anti-Black racism. Such a dialogue on race must aim to advance a meaningful program of reparations and reconciliation, resulting in policies that may range from massive economic wealth transfers from the city to Blacks who have been harmed by racist practices to a general, purposeful overhaul of the city’s private and public institutions.

This project must also be attached to reflection that exposes the harm committed. Changing the name of Faneuil Hall is a tangible project around which we can have heartfelt, and sometimes contentious, civic engagement.

Surely, we can organize ourselves toward a new Boston as its 400th anniversary approaches in 2030. Boston’s social, civic and political reorganization must be centered around the racial demons that have haunted and hurt us. If this happens, Boston will become a true cradle of liberty and disconnect itself from the racist reputation it now unfortunately has.

Rev. Kevin C. Peterson, a former Banner staffer, is the founder of The New Democracy Coalition and the Faneuil Hall Race and Reconciliation Project.