Someone’s getting evicted from San Jose City Hall in California after 60 years of residence: Christopher Columbus, who had previously occupied a place of pride in the building’s lobby.
Evidently recognizing that celebrating a figure known for racism, genocide and colonialism wasn’t a great look for a forward-thinking, progressive city, the City Council announced that the statue will be removed and has six weeks to find a new place.
The move was a response to an organizing campaign by the San Jose Brown Berets, a Chicano service and activist organization. It’s part of their Decolonize San Jose program, which also aims to remove other monuments to colonialism and oppression in the city.
Over the course of 2017, a growing wave of civic statue removals in response to outcry swept across the United States. Most of these statues were affiliated with icons of the Confederacy, with civil rights advocates arguing that celebrating white supremacist heroes wasn’t consistent with the values of many communities. Some of the statues came down in the dead of night, quietly carted off by public works employees. Others were actually torn down by crowds tired of waiting. Some places are renaming their buildings, too.
But Native American and indigenous groups have also been fighting a long and bitter battle over altars to colonialism found in cities and towns across the United States. Aside from the numerous place names associated with Columbus and his ilk, a number of cities still have statues of the historic figure. Advocates argue that, much like Confederate statues, these monuments should be relegated to history, not kept on display in buildings dedicated to public functions.
San Jose’s decision to remove this particular statue represents a big victory, and it also sends a message to the rest of the United States: You, too can get rid of your Columbus statues — and circles, parks, streets and other place names — and strip Columbus Day from your list of holidays.