Goodbye, Columbus

In fourteen hundred and ninety two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue…

I learned that little ditty in 1960’s grade school. It was taught in elementary school history without question: Christopher Columbus (aka ‘Cristoforo Columbo’ en Italiano and ‘Cristobál Colón’ en Español) was THE man who “discovered” America while searching for a shorter trade route from Europe to Asia on behalf of the Spanish monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand. We knew this man was important because on October 12, 1968, and every October 12 after that, the world stopped (or at least there was no mail delivery) in his honor.

But how in the world did a person who never set foot on North American soil become so embedded in our national story through statues, city names, and civic holidays? It’s a fascinating story of immigration, definitions of race and international politics. Read on!

Between 1880 and 1920, more than three million Italians had immigrated to the United States. Many Southern Italians and Sicilians arrived in New Orleans and helped dig the canals and work in the sugar cane fields. In Italy, northern Italians often looked down on Italians from the south as backward and uncivilized and racially suspicious due to their darker skin tone.

Upon arrival in New Orleans, the southern Italians and Sicilians tended to be lumped together with former slaves and treated with the same dehumanization. These Italians often lived in Black communities and were frequently referred to as “white n——rs.”

The racial tensions exploded in 1891, after popular New Orleans Chief of Police, David Hennessy, was murdered as he walked home from work. Nineteen Italian immigrants were rounded up and charged with the murder. After six of the men were acquitted of their charges by a jury, a mob numbering in the tens of thousands descended on the jail, demanding blood and accusing the Sicilian “mafia” of bribing the jury. Finally, a smaller group broke into the jail and went on a murderous spree. In the end, 11 Italians were killed and their bodies were desecrated by the mob. No one was charged with the crime.

The initial response to “America’s largest lynching” was generally celebratory. Even The New York Times dismissed the mob action, noting that the victims were “sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins.” However, the incident had international repercussions. The Italian government broke off diplomatic relations with the United States and there were rumors of war.

With the 400th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage and the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892 on the horizon, President Benjamin Harrison used the opportunity to ease tensions with the Italian government by asking Congress for legislation to protect foreign nationals from mob violence, by giving the families of the victims a monetary settlement and by declaring that October 12, 1892, would be a “one-time national holiday” in honor of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. President Harrison’s declaration gave Italian-Americans the opportunity to insert themselves into the story of America by casting Christopher Columbus as the “first Italian immigrant” to the Americas and a symbol of Italian creativity, determination and religious devotion.

New York Times writer and author Brent Staples refers to the New Orleans lynching and the subsequent acts of President Harrison as the moment that “Italians became White.” This explains why there is such objection of the removal of statues of Columbus within much of the Italian-American community. Four hundred years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he posthumously gave Italians access to the privileges of whiteness in America. To remove Columbus from his pedestal in the American story (even if it isn’t “true”) is to erase Italian-American progress and put them at risk again for a return to racial inferiority.

As much as Italian Americans should be fully embraced as equal citizens in the American democratic experiment, they should not need a statue of Christopher Columbus (or a monument to fascist Italo Balbo) to justify it. There are plenty of other Italians that better exemplify creativity, determination and religious devotion.

At the same time, we are in a moment to acknowledge Columbus’s complicated legacy.  For many other marginalized groups, Christopher Columbus has been and continues to be a symbol of the destruction of indigenous cultures throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. Thanks to Columbus’ failed voyage to Asia, millions of people suffered. The conquistadors didn’t just bring Christianity; they brought disease, enslavement and exploitation. It is this legacy that has been erased from history.

It’s time to tell the honest truth about Christopher Columbus who did not “discover” America, but simply revealed it to the Europeans so they could come again and again and rape it for profit. It is time to remove the statues of Christopher Columbus (and other questionable historical figures) and place them in a new “Museum of Distorted History” so their stories can be told in a broader historical context.

It is also time to find new symbols that we can hold up to affirm the value and humanity of everyone. As a person of Christian faith, that symbol is the cross of a middle-eastern prophet who crossed the accepted social boundaries and showed us what love really looks like.