The historic #ChristopherColumbus statue, which stands atop a pedestal in Pittsburgh's Schenley Park, has been a fixture in the community for over 60 years. It has been subjected to intense criticism since 2020 when the members of the Pittsburgh Art Commission recommended that it be removed. Whether or not this recommendation will be carried out remains to be seen.

A petition started making the rounds in 2020 to have the statue removed from the park when several people stated that Christopher Columbus was not a man who should be revered. The petition says of Columbus that "he found native-inhabited land and claimed it for himself, using extreme violence and cruelty. Overall, he was a terrible man that should not be celebrated at all." 

Then-Mayor Bill Peduto agreed with the assessment, and he was prepared to start the process of removing the statue when he hit a snag: the Italian Sons and Daughters of America sued the city over the intended removal. They dispute the legitimacy of the allegations against Columbus and say that he remains an important symbol of Italian heritage. 

The statue was originally proposed by the city's Italian community in 1909 to commemorate the lynching of 11 Italians. They view attempts to remove it as being vain efforts to obliterate the Italian community's contribution to Pittsburgh.

While the legal battle continues, the statue remains in the park but has been covered by a tarp since late 2020, when people began demanding its removal. The Italian Sons and Daughters of America offered to build a similar statue honoring a Native American figure, but their suggestion fell on deaf ears.

Some people say that Pittsburgh should remove the statue because it depicts a divisive figure in American history responsible for the mass subjugation of America's native tribes. They suggest that it would be a nice gesture to replace it with a statue honoring one of several black people who helped build Pittsburgh. Others are critical of the drive to remove the statue, saying that it is less symbolic of Christopher Columbus himself than it is of the area's Italian heritage at large, and removing it would be an offense to the contributions they have made.

The question up for debate: Should the city of Pittsburgh remove the #ChristopherColumbus #statue from Schenley Park?