BY KEVIN DUGGAN
An anonymous online group
has launched a small petition
to remove the statue of Christopher
Columbus from outside
the State Supreme Court Building
in Downtown Brooklyn,
and to rename the adjacent Columbus
Park.
The petition, which was
started on June 10 by a group
that calls itself simply “The
People,” demands that the city
turn to Native American communities
for choosing the new
name of the park and the statue’s
replacement, lamenting
the 15th-century explorer for
his “ruthless conquest and settler
colonialism.”
“We demand that the name
of Columbus Park be changed!
We demand that the statue of
Columbus be removed! We demand
that you consult Native
communities in renaming the
park,” the initiative reads.
The 7-foot marble statue
atop an 11-foot pedestal was
sculpted by Emma Stebbins in
the 1860s, but lingered in a Central
COURIER L 12 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
Park maintenance yard until
1934, when offi cials installed
it in Manhattan’s Chinatown,
according to the Parks Department’s
website. In 1971, following
the renaming of the southern
part of Cadman Plaza in
honor of Columbus, the administration
of Mayor John Lindsay
installed the statue at its
current location with support
from the Italian Historical Society
of America.
The Italian-American
group’s executive director argued
that Columbus was a pioneer
and that removing the
statue was an “attack” on history.
“At a time when even the
shape of this planet was unknown,
Christopher Columbus
was a man with a vision and extraordinary
navigation skills,”
said John LaCorte in a statement.
“To look at the accomplishment
through a historical
and moral perspective that has
evolved over 600 years is an attack
on an understanding of
history and the evolution of human
consciousness.”
Last October, a vandal
spray-painted the letters “FC”
at the base of the pedestal on
the federal holiday dedicated
to Columbus — which has been
recently renamed “Indigenous
People’s Day” in some parts of
the country to appease critics
who denounced the explorer
for his enslavement of Native
Americans.
The recent move to take the
monument down, which has so
far collected more than 150 signatures
of support, comes amid
similar demands to remove and
rename the more prominent
Columbus statue atop Columbus
Circle in Manhattan — for
which another petition has already
collected some 5,000 signatures.
The Downtown Brooklyn Columbus statue. Photo by Kevin Duggan
This is not the fi rst time Columbus
statues in New York
City have faced scrutiny.
Mayor Bill de Blasio in
2017 launched a commission
to review “symbols of hate”
across the city — including
statues of Columbus — following
the deadly white supremacist
“Unite the Right” rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
The city ultimately decided
to keep the statues, amid fi erce
defenses from Italian Americans,
including Gov. Andrew
Cuomo, but offi cials said they
would place new historical
markers explaining the history
of the explorer and the
monument itself.
At his daily press briefi ng
on June 12, de Blasio did not
take a new position on the statues
and stuck by the 2017 review.
Governor Cuomo weighed
in at his June 11 press conference,
saying that the statue
represents the contributions
of Italian-Americans to New
York.
“The statue has come to
represent and signify appreciation
for the Italian-American
contribution to New York, so
for that reason, I support it,”
Cuomo said on June 11.
DISCOVER THAT!
Petition calls for removal of Downtown
Brooklyn Columbus statue, renaming park
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