Why not rename Franklin Street after Martin Luther King Jr.? After all, Dr. King is a hero of the 20th century, and so doing would provide a powerful gesture toward a more inclusive city.

But why honor Dr. King in this way? Had he ever visited Franklin Street? Did he stand arm in arm with the working-class Armenians and Italians when their neighborhood came under threat from urban renewal? Is the street the site of any significant civil rights history?

The Press Herald reported that Franklin Wharf was a stop on the Underground Railway. Why not name Franklin Street after an important figure from that era? Or, if we want to show how far we have come as a nation, we could name the stretch of road that links the historic site to Interstate 295 after Barack Obama, the first black president.

Or, bearing in mind that Franklin Street’s redesign is very much a work in progress, why not wait until the construction is done and name it after a community member who led the process, such as Markos Miller or former District 1 City Councilor Kevin Donoghue?

Renaming a local street after Dr. King is becoming so widespread among American cities that it is almost a cliché. The fact is, Dr. King’s memory doesn’t need this honor – we would be doing this to boost our own civil rights bona fides.

Portland has its own black history with historic sites and neighborhoods, like the ambiguously named A, B and D streets in the St. John-Valley neighborhood, and our own civil rights leaders, like Gerald Talbot.

With three African-Americans on the City Council, a more inclusive Portland is an imperative, and a good start to forging a brighter future is to honor the past. There should just be more discussion as to which past we wish to honor.

Zack Barowitz

Portland