Christopher Columbus Monument

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” For generations, American schoolchildren have learned the simple rhyme and traditionally viewed Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) as a seafaring hero who discovered America. As an Italian explorer in service of Spain, Columbus has been particularly lionized by Italians, and roots of Richmond’s Christopher Columbus statue reside within the city’s Italian-American community. Although Richmond’s Italian community only numbered 1,000, they evinced great pride in their heritage. In the 1920s, local barber Frank Realmuto broached the idea of erecting a statue to Columbus, and it gained steam among the Italian community.

The City of Richmond proved less enthusiastic of Mr. Realmuto’s idea. In the early 20th century, Italian immigrants were often viewed as second-class citizens. White Anglo-Saxon Americans looked upon migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe with suspicion, especially due to their Catholicism. The city first heard the Columbus proposal on May 28, 1925. A petition was presented with 200 signatures in opposition to the monument. The petition and opposition stemmed from the Patriotic Welfare Committee, an umbrella organization comprised of various civic groups including the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, the Patriotic Order of America, and the Ku Klux Klan. The city’s committee on buildings, properties, and utilities rejected the monument proposal on a 6-1 vote.

The nativist, anti-Catholic outrage of the Patriotic Welfare Committee and the subsequent rejection of the monument backfired on the city. The National Editorial Association was meeting in Richmond that month, and newspapers reports on the affair across the country embarrassed city leaders. Rethinking the matter, the city referred the proposal the committee on streets which approved the monument. Rather than being on Monument Avenue, however, the Columbus Monument would be located near Byrd Park.

The monument itself depicts a bronze Christopher Columbus standing atop a granite pedestal. The Columbus sculpture was crafted by local artist Ferruccio Legnaioli. Hailing from Florence, Legnaioli immigrated to the United States in 1902 and worked for an architectural firm in New York before migrating to Richmond in 1907. Legnaioli operated a studio in Richmond that employed 30 workers. When sculpting Columbus, he used local citizen Sidney Sheffield as a model. The pedestal was crafted by local citizen Alfonso Grappone. Richmond’s Italian-American community raised thousands of dollars to fund the statue.

The Columbus Monument was dedicated on December 9, 1927 in front of 2,000 people. Speeches were made by Virginia Governor Harry F. Byrd, Sr., who praised fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as “one of the few great supreme leaders the world has produced, and Italian ambassador to the U.S. Nobile Giacomo de Martino. The local Richmond Howitzers militia fired two cannons in salute.

In recent decades the achievements and legacy of Christopher Columbus have come under closer scrutiny by scholars and the public alike. In some respects, his great achievement of “discovering” the New World has been undermined. Certainly Native-Americans knew and lived in the Americas for generations prior to Columbus. Moreover, it’s become clear through archeological evidence that Vikings “discovered” North America around 1000 CE, even establishing a small settlement in Vinland (Newfoundland). Moreover, historians have made clear Columbus’ role in oppressing and exterminating thousands of Natives through both enslavement and the spreading of disease to which Natives had no immunity. As some scholars have contended, “any celebration of Columbus and his deeds is in fact a celebration of genocide of native peoples in the Americas.”[5]

In recent years, there’s been a movement to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and many celebrate increasingly it as such. In 2020, amidst nationwide protests over systemic racism and national debates over the removal of Confederate statues, many Columbus statues have likewise been critiqued as celebratory of genocide and white supremacy. On the evening of June 9, 2020, protestors pulled down the Columbus statue with ropes. The toppled statue was set alight and then rolled into the small lake in Byrd Park. The graffiti-covered pedestal remained, upon which a sign was placed that read “Columbus represents genocide.” As of November 2020, Richmond has no plans to restore the moment.

1. Nick Kappatos. "From the archives: The story of the Christopher Columbus statue in Byrd Park." June 9, 2020. Richmond Times-Dispatch. Web. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://richmond.com/from-the-archives/the-story-of-the-christopher-columbus-statue-on-boulevard/article_6ff6eb6c-2fe9-11e5-8c16-9ff946830c22.html

2. Harry Kollatz, Jr. "Columbus Discovered." October 13, 2014. Richmond Magazine. Web. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://richmondmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/columbus-discovered/

3. "Richmond protesters topple Columbus statue, throw it in lake." June 10, 2020. AP News. Web. Accessed November 12, 2020. https://apnews.com/article/e99df0a4ec90e92540a2780d83cee56d

4. Alicia Lee. "Why Christopher Columbus wasn't the hero we learned about in school." June 12, 2020. CNN. Web. Accessed November 13, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/us/christopher-columbus-slavery-disease-trnd/index.html

5. George E. Tinker and Mark Freeland. "Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline." Wicazo Sa Review. Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring 2008): 25-50.