The statue, which was dedicated in December 1927, was the first statue of Columbus erected in the South, according to The Times-Dispatch.
Native Americans have been calling for states to replace Columbus Day, which is celebrated the second Monday in October, with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. They have said that Columbus’s discovery of the New World led to the genocide of Indigenous populations in the Americas.
Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond responded to the incident in Byrd Park on Twitter on Wednesday, saying that “the atrocities inflicted upon Indigenous people by Christopher Columbus are unconscionable.” He added that the city began celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day last year.
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Christopher Columbus...gone...in the lake, and 'off with his head" elsewhere.
A symbol of White Supremacy, apparently.