Five years after Columbus officials removed the city’s namesake statue from outside City Hall amid the summer 2020 racial justice protests, the city could be one step closer to displaying its Christopher Columbus statue somewhere else.
Since 2023, the city-approved Reimagining Columbus team has been hosting community conversations, studying whether the statue could be displayed again respectfully and developing a recommendation. A $2-million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project funded the effort.
Now, the group has a pitch for city residents and leaders: the statue could be displayed in a new, centrally located park along the Scioto River. Christopher Columbus would not be the focal point of this theoretical park, and his statue would be displayed next to text and artwork that tell the history of the city and the man, including the controversial parts of his legacy involving his treatment of Indigenous people. An exact location for the park was not identified…