PORTLAND – The city is poised to honor the man recognized as the founder of Portland with a 7-foot bronze statue, but the NAACP said George Cleeve may have owned a slave and should not be memorialized.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is charging that Cleeve arrived in Portland 368 years ago accompanied by a black slave named Oliver Weeks.

Saying it is offensive to memorialize someone who kept slaves, the NAACP is calling on city officials not to install the Cleeve statue, at least not on public property.

“We can’t sit here and condone the city paying homage to a man who may have introduced slavery to the city,” said Winston McGill, a Portland firefighter and vice president of the local chapter of the NAACP. “It’s just not what this city is all about.”

But it’s not certain that Cleeve did own a slave. Little is known absolutely about the Englishman who is credited with settling Portland in 1633, including what he looked like, when and where he died, even how he spelled his name.

The donor of the statue, the George Cleeve Association, denies that Cleeve ever had slaves and calls the NAACP’s concerns bizarre. The group’s members – they call themselves “Cleevies” – say they’d be outraged if the City Council reconsiders its earlier decision to install the statue on the Maine State Pier.

“It really doesn’t matter what [Cleeve] did or didn’t do,” said Alex Taylor, a “Cleevie” who lives in South Portland. “He founded the city.”

As slim as the historical record is, city officials say enough clues about Cleeve and his character have emerged to raise concerns. The City Council appears ready to rethink its acceptance of the statue.

“Obviously this is an issue of some sensitivity,” said City Councilor Nathan H. Smith. “There are deep concerns about whether or not it’s appropriate to put this statue in a public space.”