Between 1880 and 1920, over 4 million Italian immigrants entered the United States. Few came to Minnesota, and the state’s Italian-born population peaked in 1910 at 9,688. When they arrived, they faced a racial ideology of Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Nordic superiority. Italian Americans were seen as “in between” white and non-white, enduring what some historians have called “soft racism.” In a nativist response, the US government passed the Johnson Reed Act in 1924. The act severely limited immigration, particularly from Italy.
In the next few years, Italian Americans throughout the US erected Columbus memorials, and the Minnesota effort followed in that tradition. After members of the Italian Progressive Club of Duluth proposed the idea at a 1927 meeting, it was endorsed by the Minnesota Federation of Italian-American Clubs, and a resolution to create a monument was drafted at the Columbus Day Banquet held in Hibbing that year. The unanimously adopted resolution made it clear that the monument was about Italian pride and unity. But it also tried to establish Italians as white American citizens.
The effort to erect a monument to Columbus spread to cities across the Iron Range, to St. Paul and Minneapolis, and to communities with small Italian American populations across Minnesota. Italian Americans formed a Columbus Memorial Association and raised $50,000 by public subscription from the Italians of Minnesota. The association wanted the state government to accept the monument as a gift and legitimize the effort. At the same time, leaders of the Italian American community petitioned their legislators to establish Columbus Day as a state holiday. Ultimately, the state legislature approved the Columbus Day bill on April 14, 1931, and accepted the Columbus Memorial as a gift to the state. The statue was designed by Carlo (Charles) Brioschi and the plinth by State Architect Clarence H. Johnston.
The unveiling of the Columbus Memorial was a grand affair, with over 24,000 people in attendance. Italian Americans from the Midwest, local Minnesotans, and political officials from across the nation came to St. Paul. The main messages of the program were that Columbus had discovered America and Italians would be accepted as white. The existence of Native Americans went virtually unmentioned. Afterward, the memorial became a symbol of genocide and erasure for many Native people.
Some people of Scandinavian heritage opposed the memorial, citing Leif Erickson as the first white discoverer of America. In 1949 they erected a monument to the Norseman on the opposite side of the capitol grounds. The Columbus Memorial sat quietly for decades, and the association that created it continued to meet. The 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landfall brought new attention to the memorial in 1992, and the association added a plaque to the plinth. Native Americans in St. Paul and across the country denounced celebrations of Columbus; in June the memorial was splashed with red paint.
In 2015, the debate over Columbus reignited as monuments to white supremacy, mainly Confederate ones, were vandalized, torn down, and removed. Protests were held at the St. Paul memorial and thousands of people signed online petitions aimed at removing it or replacing it. St. Paul, Minneapolis, and the State of Minnesota proclaimed Indigenous Peoples Day in ensuing years, but the memorial survived.
On June 10, 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in South Minneapolis, a group including people who identified as part of AIM tore down the Columbus statue. Though they did not condone the destruction of public property, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan acknowledged that the memorial’s presence pained many citizens. Flanagan said she was not sad to see the statue go. Other elected officials and members of the public, meanwhile, pushed for the statue to be restored and reinterpreted. As of July 2, the Minnesota Historical Society and the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board (CAAPB) were discussing next steps.
For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.
