The movement to remove statues and monuments of controversial historic figures came to Buffalo before dawn on Friday: The city took down a statue of Christopher Columbus in a West Side park long named for him.
Christopher Columbus Park will also be renamed, city officials said, with a name that better honors the contributions and sacrifices of Italian Americans.
The removal of the statue of the 15th-century Italian explorer – a man long considered a source of pride for Italian Americans, while vilified by Native Americans and others for acts of genocide – was initiated by the Federation of Italian-American Societies of Western New York. It was a proactive measure, the North Buffalo-based group said.
"The Columbus statue was removed by the federation to prevent the possibility of protesters removing it," said former federation President Donald Alessi. “We saw what happened in Baltimore, we saw what happened in Boston and other places, and we said we don't want that to happen here.”
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A statue of Christopher Columbus was toppled by protesters and thrown into Baltimore's Inner Harbor on July 4. A marble statue of Columbus in Boston was decapitated, and protests in several other cities have also knocked down statues of Columbus, with protesters in Richmond setting one on fire and throwing it into a nearby lake.
"We don’t want it to be thrown into the Niagara River or be defaced," Alessi said. "We don't want any of those things to happen because that would be an insult to our community, and we don't want to be insulted."
A 2015 photo of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Park in Buffalo.
Mayor Byron W. Brown applauded the federation's decision at an announcement early Friday in Columbus Park.
"It is said that if we do not learn from our history, that we are bound to repeat it," the mayor said. "Columbus Day was first celebrated as a way to end racial discrimination against Italian Americans, and later, for some became a painful reminder of racial injustice.
"More important than the statue or the name of the park is that this space was dedicated to honor the contributions of the Italian American community to this city and to our nation. I thank the Federation of Italian-American Societies of Western New York for their courage in making this decision, and making this request to the city in the spirit of racial reconciliation and a desire to help bring our community together."
Alessi said commemorations of Columbus are symbolic of the contributions made by Italian Americans in the United States, and less about the explorer from Genoa who sailed from Spain.
"Most of the statues erected throughout the nation were done by the dedication and monies and even the labor of Italian American immigrants as a symbol for the Italian American presence in this country," Alessi said.
The city is returning the statue to the organization, which paid for its construction in the 1930s and gifted it to Buffalo. The Italian American organization plans to relocate the statue to an undetermined place in Buffalo, which Alessi said could be an "indoor, museum-like" location.
A statue honoring the contributions and struggles of Italian American immigrants will be commissioned by the federation to replace the Columbus statue.
The new name of the park will be chosen by the federation in consultation with the city.
The Brown administration also agreed that the city will recognize October as Italian Heritage Month and the second Monday of October as Italian Heritage Day.
Alessi acknowledged simply moving the statue would not remove the controversy surrounding Columbus. Historians note the Italian explorer and colonizer was personally involved in large-scale brutality and enslavement.
"We’re not just going to put it another place down the street, because then it’s just relocating it to another place where there’s a potential for controversy," Alessi said. "We pride ourselves on acknowledging cultural diversity and want to be as inclusive as possible. We didn't want to be considered offensive."
Buffalo's Columbus statue has been occasionally targeted by those who sought its removal. In a 2017 incident, red paint was poured on the statue, and the statue was vandalized last month at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.
Delaware Council Member Joel Feroleto recalled the widespread discrimination, mistreatment and persecution of Italian immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and what Columbus came to represent. Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937, but remains a point of controversy.
"This is a very passionate topic for a lot of Americans, especially Italian Americans," Feroleto said.
Niagara Council Member David Rivera praised the federation for its proactive action.
"What is so important in this decision is that it came from the federation itself – Italian Americans who made this decision, unlike in other places where monuments are coming down," Rivera said.
