Worcester Christopher Columbus Statue Removal: Council Says No — Again

WORCESTER, MA — A towering Christopher Columbus statue in Worcester has again proven to be one of the most potent political forces in the city, dividing the city council and driving hostility between local ethnic communities.

The Worcester City Council Tuesday voted against having a discussion about the removal of the Washington Square monument, which stands outside Union Station. District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera sought to convene a community discussion on the statue, citing the legacy of Columbus' role in the slaughter of indigenous people in the Caribbean.

The order asked the city manager to "organize a diverse community discussion to determine the best course of action for removing the Christopher Columbus statue from any public space."

"It is part of history, but it's a hurtful history, and can we have this conversation?" Rivera said. "Can we have this conversation, please, for healing?"

Before the vote, councilors took turns opining on the merits of even having a discussion.

District 1 Councilor Sean Rose said the two sides on the Columbus issue need to come together to talk about its symbolism, even if it doesn't lead to the statue's removal.

"If this gets [voted down] tonight, it's just going to keep coming up over and over again to the point where it becomes pulling people further and further apart from each other," Rose said. "It could be a great, rich conversation for people to hear one another out."

At-Large Councilor Moe Bergman said he didn't quite buy the negative view of Columbus because no one living in 2022 knows what norms were around in the 15th Century.

"The bottom line is none of us are experts," he said of Columbus' legacy. "A lot of it is emotional. I don't see how you could be judge and jury on something not everyone can agree on. I don't know what goal there would be in requiring a meeting."

"Is Worcester more tolerant in keeping that statue in place or more tolerant for having it removed? I vote for the former," Bergman said.

Columbus' detailed his arrival in the Americas in his own journal. In a passage about landing on an island in what is now the Bahamas, Columbus wrote that "with fifty men they can all be subjugated." Historians have estimated some 55 million indigenous people died or were killed in the 100 years after Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean.

When it became clear the council was going to vote in favor of filing — or terminating — Rivera's order, she stood to speak and took off her coat to reveal a T-shirt that read, "If you didn't want 'us' to be part of 'your' country ... you should have picked your own cotton."

"I wanted this to be a simple conversation," she said after reading bitter emails she has received after proposing the Columbus discussion.

"If you don't like it move, you're just another white hater. Why don't we take down the black statute for every white statue that comes down?" one email said, Rivera said.

"It's not about changing history, you don't remove hard history, I get that. But we also don't memorialize or commemorate or celebrate it when it's been hurtful," she said. "All I wanted was to have a conversation."

The vote to kill Rivera's motion died in a 5-5 vote, with Bergman and Councilors Candy Mero-Carlson, Kate Toomey, George Russell and Donna Colorio voting in favor, Rivera, Rose and Councilors Etel Haxhiaj, Thu Nguyen and Khrystian King voting against. Mayor Joseph Petty recused himself and did not vote.

The council last approached the Columbus statue in July 2020, voting 8-2 on a Rivera motion seeking the removal of the statue. At the time, officials said the city could face a legal issue if the statue was moved.

The Columbus statue was erected in the 1970s after local Italian-American residents raised money for it. The statue was a gift to the city, and an agreement attached to the gift said the statue must be kept in a public place. If it were to be taken down, the city would be in violation of the agreement, and the statue would be given back to the heirs of the family who gifted it originally, the city solicitor has previously said.

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and a wider racial reckoning, Columbus statues across the country — and Confederate monuments — were removed in cities like Pittsburgh and Chicago. Apart from the statue, Worcester has Cristoforo Colombo Park along Shrewsbury Street (also known as East Park) and a neighborhood named Columbus Park, which is also home of the Columbus Park Preparatory Elementary School.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly said Rivera's shirt referred to picking coffee. We have updated the story to reflect that the shirt referred to picking cotton.