For the New York City Council, it is down come the statues…maybe.
The Democratic-led council’s Cultural Affairs Committee will hold a public hearing today on a proposal to remove certain statues on city property dedicated to historical figures such as first president George Washington, early Dutch colonial leader Peter Stuyvesant and the explorer Christopher Columbus. The rationale is that all three of these men have controversial aspects of their past: Washington owned slaves, Stuyvesant was also a slaveowner and vehemently opposed to religious liberty, and Columbus arriving in the Americas ushered in horrors for the natives, slavery included.
But critics immediately branded the effort as “cancel culture.” Angelo Vivolo, president of the Columbus Heritage Coalition, proclaimed (inaccurately) that “Columbus was a migrant!”
He also vowed to fight any attempt to remove monuments of the famous Genoese explorer, including the most recognizable statue at Columbus Circle.
The Cultural Affairs Committee’s hearing involves legislation that would require the city’s Public Design Commission to publish a plan to remove works “that depict a person who owned enslaved persons or directly benefited economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity.”
If the commission determines that a statue or monument honors a person who committed crimes against humanity but votes not to remove it, it would require the city to install an “explanatory plaque” about the misdeeds of the depicted figure, according to the bill authored by Brooklyn Councilwoman Sandy Nurse and co-sponsored by 16 other lawmakers.
“This bill would also require the Department of Transportation to consult with the Department of Education to install plaques on sidewalks or other public space adjacent to schools that are named after a person that fits the criteria,” Nurse said in a memo about the bill.
