The effect of wokeness may be fading in Ohio’s capital city. Years after the Christopher Columbus statue was removed in Columbus in 2020 during the height of Black Lives Matter protests, there are plans to restore the statue to public prominence.
State Rep. Brian Stewart, a Republican who represents Ohio’s 12th District, shared news about an August 16 event from Reimagining Columbus to unveil the design for a new display featuring the statue.
The Reimagining Columbus website references a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation provided in 2023 for the project. Werth PR’s Dan Williamson, a project consultant, explained to The Daily Signal that no public funds are involved. “This is entirely funded by the Melon Foundation monuments project.”
The website also detailed how Columbus was cancelled by the city bearing his name.
“The Columbus statue was removed from City Hall on July 1, 2020, following local protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis,” the website explained, further explaining that that same month, Columbus Day was eliminated as a paid holiday by the Franklin County Commissioners and replaced with Juneteenth. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.
“The decision to mothball a statute of Christopher Columbus—in Columbus of all places—was a dumb move made at the height of the woke insanity post-2020,” Stewart told The Daily Signal, adding more perspective on the Black Lives Matter protests at the time.
The website also takes aim at the historic figure.
“Documented abuses of indigenous people by Christopher Columbus had, for some time, brought into question whether celebrations and memorials to him were insensitive,” the web page states. “As a result of the removal and storage of the statue, the Columbus Arts Commission formed a committee to make recommendations about the statue’s future. One idea was to relocate the statue and to include with it extensive contextual material that could tell a more complete and nuanced story.”
While Columbus statues have been targeted and Columbus Day has been replaced or celebrated as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, National Italian American Foundation President and CEO Robert Allegrini explained the importance of the holiday to Italian Americans.
“Italian Americans have long viewed Columbus Day as more than simply honoring one historical figure—it represents the beginning of centuries of immigration to America and the struggles and achievements of those who followed, particularly our Italian ancestors,” Allegrini shared with The Daily Signal. “The Columbus statues and celebrations that have been targeted in recent years were often established by early Italian immigrants who collected ‘literally nickels and dimes’ to fund monuments representative of their culture during times when Italian Americans faced significant discrimination.”
The Reimagining Columbus project does include a pro-Columbus perspective.
“This project has had outstanding participation from members of Columbus’ Italian-American community, many of whom expressed positive views about both the Christopher Columbus statue, as well as Christopher Columbus the man,” Williamson explained to The Daily Signal. “Their participation and their feedback is reflected in the fact that the statue is included in the design that will be unveiled this weekend. Under the design—which would need a designated site and a funding plan—people would again be able to visit the statue, which was a gift to Columbus from our sister city, Genoa.”
Such perspective would be welcome in a city that hardly celebrates Columbus despite bearing his name. “Even Columbus, Ohio, no longer observes its namesake’s holiday, having renamed it Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2020,” Pew Research noted in October 2023. Columbus City Schools are also not closed for the occasion.
The Columbus Dispatch, in October 2023, noted changes made in the city. “Because the federal holiday celebrating Columbus has become a contentious issue,” it reported, “most local governments and other public entities here have moved the day off elsewhere.”
Context can be provided on Columbus without needing to involve contention or sacrificing the importance of celebrating Italian-Americans, Allegrini said.
“While historical figures should always be understood in their full context, Columbus Day at its core commemorates a momentous chapter in human exploration that ultimately connected the world in unprecedented ways. For Italian Americans, the holiday holds special significance as a celebration of our heritage, but its broader importance lies in recognizing how this singular voyage reshaped global history and set in motion the complex series of events that would eventually create the American nation we know today,” Allegrini added. “By preserving Columbus Day, we honor not just one man or one community, but the remarkable human capacity for discovery, adaptation, and progress that continues to define our shared American journey.”
The Reimaging Columbus project thus may present a “unique” opportunity, Williamson said. “I believe this project is unique in that no other community that has removed a Columbus statue has undergone a process to consider how to bring it back.”
In addition to plans for bringing back the statue taking down in 2020, a Columbus statue also still exists in the statehouse.