Debate over statue’s removal continues
City placed monument to Columbus in storage in 2020
BRIDGEPORT — On Monday, in honor of Columbus Day, the Council of Italian American Societies of Greater Bridgeport will continue a five-plus decade tradition of laying a wreath at the bronze statue of the navigator in Seaside Park.
And for the second year in a row there will be no statue, just a vacant pedestal rising up before Long Island Sound, and lingering questions about what, if anything, should happen next to restore it or replace it with another tribute to the city’s Italian Americans.
Over a year after Mayor Joe Ganim’s abrupt July 6, 2020, decision to put the divisive monument in storage, the parks commission recently reiterated that members still want Ganim to abide by their vote last year to put it back. But the administration is making no overt effort to do so or to explore another solution.
“We haven’t given up,” insisted former state Rep. Christopher Caruso, a prominent Italian leader who was one of the most vocal defenders of keeping Columbus at Seaside and an organizer of this weekend’s festivities. Besides Monday’s laying of the wreath, the 113th annual Columbus Day Parade is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday on Wayne Street and Madison Avenue, though because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic it will be an invitation-only caravan of cars, trucks and floats.
Caruso said he recently spoke with Ganim by phone about the statue and
“he thought maybe bring people together to resolve the situation — come to a positive solution.”
Rowena White, Ganim’s communications director, said Friday the mayor “is definitely open to productive and constructive conversations about it, but also with a sensitivity to everyone’s feelings.”
But who will be responsible for organizing that effort remains to be seen. In New Haven, for example, after the city took down its Columbus statue in Wooster Square, Mayor Justin Elicker formed a committee to explore ideas for new monuments to Italian heritage. That work continues.
Ganim abruptly ordered Bridgeport’s statue, a gift to the city in the 1950s by its Italian community, taken down over what he said were unspecified threats of vandalism. At the time likenesses of other controversial figures were being targeted around Connecticut — a Columbus statue was beheaded in Waterbury — and around the nation, and questions were starting to be raised about why Columbus should be honored at Seaside.
Columbus is considered an Italian American hero and also a symbol of colonialism and racism. Ganim’s decision caught both sides of that debate by surprise, and advocates and critics spent the next few months fighting over whether it should be reversed.
The parks commission argued it has the ultimate authority, was never consulted by the mayor, and in August 2020 voted for the city to return Columbus to Seaside using funds other than the parks department’s. Ganim’s response was to try to wash his hands of the matter, stating “at this point ... the statue is in the exclusive jurisdiction of the Parks Commission” while taking no affirmative action to fulfill that board’s request.
Then, as reported at the time, just ahead of last Columbus Day, the public facilities department quietly hired a contractor, Mac Industrial Services of Beacon Falls, that was within hours of restoring the monument when the job was suddenly canceled.
This past Aug. 10 the parks commission revived the issue at its meeting that night, reiterating the need for the mayor to “honor the charter and the authority vested in” that body and “reinstall the statue to its rightful place.”
Member John Hosier said in an interview this week that, in acknowledgment of the differing views on the Italian navigator’s place in history, a revised plaque should be installed at the Seaside statue acknowledging “Christopher Columbus’ shortcomings.”
“You can’t eradicate history and say it never exited,” Hosier said. “That statue represents people back in the day ... giving dimes and nickels for their heritage. The park board is more than willing to compromise, recognize that statue, recognize that heritage and recognize what’s believed to have happened with Christopher Columbus
. ... But we need the political fortitude of the politicians to stand up and say, ‘Let’s compromise.’”
Hosier also argued that it was a small but vocal few who convinced Ganim to take action and that “99 percent of the people in this city don’t even know that it (the Seaside statue) exists.”
But given all of the publicity surrounding its removal, the monument’s return would likely generate plenty of controversy. Two prominent Black community leaders — the Rev. D. Stanley Lord, president of the NAACP and Pastor William McCullough, head of the Interdenominational Ministerial alliance of Greater Bridgeport — in interviews this week said they would strongly oppose any effort to bring Columbus out of mothballs.
“It belongs in storage. That’s where it should be,” Lord said, arguing the navigator abused people of color.
“Find somebody else to honor,” Lord said. “It shouldn’t be him.”
“I thought the statue thing was dead,” McCullough said. “I understand the Italians’ point of view. That was their hero. I get it. But in terms of Black people in America, that is not our history and he did not do anything for us . ... There shouldn’t be statues of people up in a city that only represent a small group of people when our city is diverse . ... (And) not in Seaside Park where all of us go.”