NYC Keeps Its Christopher Columbus Statue, With Commentary Added

New York City will retain the iconic statue dominating Columbus Circle honoring the 15th-century Italian explorer, while adding “historical markers” describing massacres and other hostile acts against the indigenous Caribbean islanders he encountered on his voyages.

The decision announced Friday by Mayor Bill de Blasio came after a commission conducted four months of public hearings into a citywide review of statues, spurred by actions in the south last year to tear down monuments to General Robert E. Lee and other Civil War rebels who fought to uphold slavery. The movement led cities and institutions nationally to review buildings and monuments honoring historic figures now documented to be racist.