Riyadh

On Columbus Day, long-simmering disputes over Christopher Columbus statues and the holiday itself continue in cities across the United States. Italian American advocates, including families in Syracuse, New York, whose relatives helped fund and build a community monument to Columbus in the 1930s, are pushing back against efforts to remove or dismantle such statues, arguing they honor Italian immigrant heritage rather than celebrate colonial harm.

Many Columbus statues were vandalized, toppled, or removed during the 2020 protests following George Floyd's death, and monuments in cities such as Columbus, Ohio, San Francisco, and St. Paul, Minnesota, remain in storage amid unresolved controversy. Critics view Columbus as a symbol of conquest and exploitation of Indigenous peoples, while defenders say the explorer's voyage represents the broader immigrant experience and shouldn't be erased from public memory. Some localities have already dropped official Columbus Day observances in favor of alternative commemorations, while preservation advocates continue organizing to restore and protect existing monuments nationwide.