City politicians are once again debating the removal of statues depicting people who partook in crimes against humanity.
They include the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle. Until recent years, Columbus was widely known as the man who discovered the new world.
“By contextualizing or mandating the removal of works of art depicting individuals who profited from the slavery of Black people or committed heinous acts against Indigenous peoples, we challenge the celebration of those who have perpetuated oppression,” City Councilmember Sandy Nurse said Tuesday.
During a City Council hearing of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations, Nurse outlined a bill she’s sponsoring that would sanction the removal of city art depicting a person who owned enslaved persons, benefited from slavery or committed crimes against Indigenous people or humanity.
“We need to appreciate historical context,” said Jacob Morris, the executive director of the Harlem Historical Society.
The bill would require the city’s Public Design Commission to create the plan for removal, as well as a process for determining whether city art should instead include an explanatory plaque contextualizing the person's legacy.
In 2018, Bill de Blasio's Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments and Markers voted to remove a statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims — a 19th century gynecologist who performed experimental surgery on enslaved women without their consent or anesthesia.
The commission declined to remove other art across the city depicting controversial figures, including the statue of Christopher Columbus in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle.
“Someone like Columbus who introduced chattel slavery to the Western Hemisphere, he doesn’t deserve the hero status that he has,” Morris said.
But a vocal contingent of of New York’s Italian community continues to balk at removing the statue.
“There’s a lot of false things that have been brought as a cause of Columbus,” said Andre DiMino, the president of the Italian American One Voice Coalition. “Columbus did unite the continents.”
As for George Washington and his statue in Union Square, Morris said owning slaves should not force those monuments to come down.
“Someone like George Washington absolutely was the father of our country,” Morris said.
The bill would also require the city Department of Transportation to work with the city Department of Education to affix plaques on public spaces next to schools that are named after people who partook in crimes against humanity.
The bill is still in committee and must be voted out of committee to be considered by the entire City Council.
Former Mayor de Blasio's advisory commission recommended placing a plaque at Columbus Circle that explained the explorer's history.
It made the same recommendation for the Theodore Roosevelt statue outside the American Museum of Natural History, but the museum decided to take it down.