An effort to change the title of a popular Boston landmark named after a slave trader has resurfaced this summer.

The popular Faneuil Hall landmark in Boston is more than a historic building: the surrounding area and marketplace has turned into a staple tourist attraction in the city. Advocates say the area's namesake is undeserving of such widespread recognition.

Faneuil Hall was named for Peter Faneuil in 1743. Historic accounts say Fanueil was a wealthy merchant involved in the exchange of enslaved Africans through the Triangle Trade. Faneuil used some of his profits from the slave trade to fund the building on Market Street in Boston, which has since become a central and popular marketplace destination in the city.

Now, religious leaders and supporters of the activist group New Democracy Coalition are asking the hall be renamed in honor of Crispus Attucks, an African-American man killed during the Boston Massacre attack in 1770. Some say Attucks' death by British soldiers marked the first casualty of the American Revolution.

"Attucks was a more significant historical figure related to the birth of American democracy," the New Democracy Coalition writes on its Facebook page. "Peter Faneuil may have otherwise been a good man, but he does not deserve a civic edifice in his name."

The practice of revising historical monuments and figures has increased in recent years. The idea to rename Faneuil Hall surfaced last August following a violent clash in Charlottesville that began with a city council's decision to remove a statue memorializing Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The event sparked a national debate on whether or not it was just to remove or change titles and memorials that honor racist historical figures. In the last year, officials voted to remove Boston's only Confederate memorial and rename the city's Yawkey Way to Jersey Street in an effort to strip recognition of historic Red Sox owner and alleged racist Tom Yawkey.

Activists say they plan to file a formal petition to the City of Boston to change the name of Faneuil Hall.