It’s been empty since June of 2020 and the statue that once stood atop the granite pedestal is packaged away somewhere near the State Capitol.
St. Paul restaurateur Pat Mancini knows that it is unlikely the 10-foot-tall bronze depiction of Christopher Columbus will ever return to its previous perch. But he wonders if the time has come to do something with the empty space that occupies a prominent location near the State Capitol building. If it is replaced with something else, he is putting in markers for something honoring the people who paid for the Columbus statue itself in 1931.
“The Italians in the state got together and used their hard-earned money to purchase the statute and the Capitol gave them a unique spot,” Mancini said earlier this month. Among the immigrants who gave the statue to the state were his grandparents. A photo that hangs in his West 7th Street restaurant shows the thousand or so people from the Italian community in front of the Cathedral of St. Paul after a mass conducted in celebration of the installation. Among them are his father at age 6.
“I don’t want to lose that spot,” he said. “That spot was given to the Italian American community in Minnesota. I want to make sure nothing else gets put in there other than a dedication or a memorial for Italian Americans. I think that’s only fair.”
After the statue was pulled down by Indigenous activists in the wake of the George Floyd murder, the board that determines what is installed and removed from the State Capitol campus has rewritten its policies and created processes, both for removing art and statues and installing new pieces.
According to the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, new works must answer a series of questions:
- How does it “introduce a new element of the state’s diverse history and people to the Capitol grounds?”
- How does it impact the historic, architectural, and artistic integrity of the Capitol building and grounds?
- Is there broad-based support?
- Does it have “lasting statewide historic significance for Minnesotans?”
- Is the artwork “respectful of the diversity of Minnesotans?”
Mancini said the replacement isn’t likely to depict a specific person. If it does, however, the new rules ask if the person depicted lived in Minnesota or the area now identified as Minnesota for at least five years, is the person “renowned and admired by Minnesotans” and has the person been dead for at least 10 years?
Mancini has approached Sen. Carla Nelson, a Rochester Republican who has served on the CAAP board since 2005. She said she remains concerned at the lack of serious action against those who illegally removed the statue and what should be done with it. Generally she prefers the state not remove artwork that provokes controversy and disagreement, as the state has done with paintings in the Capitol. She said favors reinterpretations, perhaps with additional plaques that say, “this is what we know today.”
“History is history. You have to learn from it. The teacher in me says I wish we had reinterpreted that statue and placed it back up,” Nelson said. An alternative could be to give it to some group or area.
“I have heard from Italian Americans who are sad to see what happened,” she said. “Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Italian Americans were coming to this state at that time, and they were facing many of the types of discrimination and inequities that we are seeing today. How do we reconcile that?”
In a MNopedia article on the statue, Peter J. DeCarlo wrote that the effort to pay for and place the statue of Columbus was part of a national movement by Italian Americans to fight back against what they saw as discrimination. In 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act had all-but closed immigration from Asia and strictly limited the numbers who could come from eastern and southern Europe, including Italy.
“The unveiling of the Columbus Memorial was a grand affair, with over 24,000 people in attendance. Italian Americans from the Midwest, local Minnesotans, and political officials from across the nation came to St. Paul,” DeCarlo wrote. “The main messages of the program were that Columbus had discovered America and Italians would be accepted as white.”
But the statue became a symbol of the Eurocentric interpretation of American history and its disregard for Native Americans.
“The 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landfall brought new attention to the memorial in 1992, and the association added a plaque to the plinth. Native Americans in St. Paul and across the country denounced celebrations of Columbus; in June the memorial was splashed with red paint.”
As the state and many of its cities redesignated Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day, both Columbus and the statue became part of the commemorations, and the debate. In 2015, a small group of protesters gathered near the pedestal to demand its removal.
After the statue was pulled down on June 10, 2020, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe and the highest ranking Native American office holder in the U.S., told MPR News she wasn’t sad to see the statue gone.
“I’m not going to perform for folks,” she said. “I’m not going to feign sadness. I will not shed a tear over the loss of a statue that honored someone that by his own admission sold 9- and 10-year-old girls into sex slavery. So, let me start there.”
While the statue was torn down by protesters and a 1992 bronze plaque was removed by state workers, the granite pedestal still carries the message: “To Christopher Columbus Discoverer of America.”
As lieutenant governor, Flanagan is the chair of the CAAP board that decides what is placed on the campus. When asked about Mancini’s idea, Flanagan said through a staff member that anyone can make proposals.
“The board is open to considering any and all ideas, including Mancini’s, if and when the proposal goes through the standard process,” she said. “The board has outlined the criteria and process for the future of these sites, and we encourage Minnesotans to submit their ideas.”
Technically, the statue is still in place, at least as far as the CAAP board processes are concerned. Would there first need to be a process to officially remove the statue, even though it was trucked away nearly four years ago and stored somewhere on the Capitol campus?
Yes, said Erik Cedarleaf Dahl, executive secretary of the planning board. He said there has been no application made for the Columbus statue or the site between the Capitol and state judicial center. First, an application would have to be processed and approved to remove the Columbus statue. Then, a second application would be needed for a new installation.
Dahl noted that the CAAP board recently gave preliminary approval to the Capitol Mall Design Framework that envisions a dramatic rethinking of the area. While the plan is still in concept stage, the area is likely to look quite different than it does now as the new vision is put in place.
Mancini said he doesn’t speak for Minnesota’s Italian American community but has been asking members what they think. While many want the Columbus statue returned, he said he recognizes the social and political reasons why that is unlikely. He has focused on commemorating the heritage, not the figure.
“I’m still trying to pick through it and get people to at least have the conversation,” Mancini said.
Peter Callaghan
Peter Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter @CallaghanPeter or email him at pcallaghan@minnpost.com.
