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Columbus statues removed from Chicago parks
CHICAGO, July 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Two statues of Christopher
Columbus were taken down in Chicago early Friday, amid a reckoning in
the United States about the Italian explorer’s controversial role in
the history of the Americas.
The statue in the city’s Grant Park — cloaked in plastic — came
down in the early hours as small groups of onlookers watched.
“It feels great seeing the statue come down,” one resident, Brenda
Armenta, told AFP.
A second statue of the navigator long hailed as the so-called
discoverer of “The New World” came down in Arrigo Park, on the edge of
Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.
Statues of Columbus and other figures connected to colonialism and
slavery have been torn from their plinths in the United States and
around the world in the wake of protests sparked by the May killing in
police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, in
Minneapolis.
The office of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement
carried by local media that the statues had been “temporarily
removed… until further notice” at her direction.
The move “comes in response to demonstrations that became unsafe
for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to
independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely
dangerous manner,” it said.
“This step is about an effort to protect public safety and to
preserve a safe space for an inclusive and democratic public dialogue
about our city’s symbols.”
The legacy of Columbus, who reached the Americas in 1492, has been
revisited with the benefit of hindsight over the brutal treatment of
native Americans by European colonizers.
Statues of Columbus have been removed in other cities such as
Baltimore, Boston and San Francisco.
But in New York, the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo and city mayor
Bill de Blasio have ruled out removing one from the circle bearing his
name near Central Park.
Cuomo, whose family has Italian roots, says while he understands
the negative feelings about Columbus and “some of his acts, which
nobody would support,” the statue honors the “Italian-American
contribution to New York.”
BSS/AFP/MRU/1958hrs