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Prosper Portland is considering a request to rename Union Station for a civil rights leader.

The effort seeks to honor the late A. Philip Randolph, who was a leader of the 1963 March on Washington and a labor activist. Randolph was founding president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and later vice president of the AFL-CIO.

The request came from Keith Edwards, a retired Portland electrician, at Prosper Portland’s April 11 board meeting.

鈥淲e hope that history would not be lost on enterprise,鈥� Edwards said. 鈥淲e hope that enterprise and history could coexist.鈥�

The agency is investigating Edwards’ request, said Shawn Uhlman, spokesman for Prosper Portland.

鈥淲e’re taking it to our steering committee and asking other bureaus how they’ve handled these requests in the past,鈥� he said. Among city bureaus, the Bureau of Transportation and Portland Parks and Recreation more commonly receive renaming requests.

The proposal to rename Union Station 鈥� Edwards proposed calling it the A. Philip Randolph Memorial Union Station 鈥� could be complicated by the train depot’s role in future redevelopment.

Union Station is part of the Broadway Corridor, a 32-acre area in Northwest Portland that includes the former U.S. Postal Service site. Prosper Portland sees Union Station as a key gateway to the Broadway Corridor.

The Broadway Corridor steering committee will be consulted on the proposed name change, Uhlman said.

The station itself is due for a major makeover that could begin as early as 2020. The unreinforced masonry building needs a full seismic retrofit; mechanical, electrical and plumbing system replacements; and main concourse restoration. Railroad tracks and platforms also would be replaced.

The 122-year-old train station is listed on the聽National Register of Historic Places. It continues to serve Amtrak and freight rail traffic.

Randolph visited Portland several times. In July 1932, he reportedly delivered a 鈥渕asterful address鈥� on 鈥淭he Negro in the Economic Crisis鈥� at Mount Olivet Baptist Church, according to an account in The Advocate, a local African-American newspaper, University of Utah professor Kimberley Mangun stated. She has studied Oregon’s role in the civil rights movement.

Randolph also visited Portland in 1927, 1949, 1951 and 1954, often to take part in union meetings, according to The Oregonian archives at the Oregon Historical Society.