Columbus Day started as a response to ethnic bigotry. Don’t cancel the day, remember the reason it began
Sick of “woke” politics? Take a stand for Columbus Day by sharing this meme from the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, and consider making a donation to the Commission for Social Justice of the OSIA. #PreserveColumbusDay

Too many Americans don’t know their history because they were never taught their history, or because they don’t care. Columbus Day came about after a nightmare lynching in New Orleans in 1890, shortly before the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in 1492. The targets of the lynching? Italians who were considered dangerous foreigners by the locals in New Orleans.
The uproar was so severe that the Italian government got involved, warning its citizens that America was a dangerous place and they should consider emigrating elsewhere rather than America. To avoid losing a major source of immigrant labor, President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 “proclaimed a nationwide celebration of ‘Discovery Day,’ recognizing Columbus as ‘the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.’ Eventually, the nations mended their relationship and the U.S. paid $25,000 in reparations.” That’s quoting National Geographic, which can’t be accused of anti-liberal or pro-conservative bias.
Officially proclaiming Columbus Day on the national level, and later in many states, was a way of showing the United States, despite significant anti-Italian discrimination by many individuals, wasn’t officially opposed to Italians.
I have zero problem with Native Americans or the concept of a “Native American Heritage Day.” It’s fine for Native Americans to take pride in their heritage, and to remind the American government of how often we’ve broken our treaties with many Native American tribes.
I’m quite aware that Columbus’ behavior five centuries ago doesn’t meet modern standards. But the warfare of many of the Native Americans that Columbus and his successors conquered didn’t meet those standards either, and was arguably far worse. Say what you will about the conquistadores, but they weren’t practicing Aztec human sacrificial rituals.
We live in a world where men who were once icons of progressivism — Thomas Jefferson, for example — have had their accomplishments ignored and their personal problems (for which in the case of Sally Hemings, Jefferson is justly criticized) used by “cancel culture” to wipe an offending Founding Father of the United States out of public favor. Never mind that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin are two of only a very few Founding Fathers who modern liberals can legitimately look to as forebears of their liberal ideas, who in the context of that time were known as “freethinkers.”
History is messy. No man is righteous when a strict standard is applied — and that’s something with which conservatives should concur.
But before we attack a holiday and the man for whom the holiday was named, we might like to take a closer look at the holiday and why it came about.
There might be more than a few Hispanic activists who, if they knew more about why we have Columbus Day, would see in the struggle of Italians of the late 1800s and early 1900s a preview of their own struggles today to be accepted as legitimately American.
Throwing out our history without even knowing why historical events happened is usually a horrible choice.
FROM National Geographic Magazine:
“But before the late 19th century, the celebrations were mainly limited to Catholic and Italian American enclaves on the East Coast, where many embraced Columbus as an intrepid explorer who embodied progress and bravery. For these people, Columbus represented their indelible contribution to a society that viewed both Catholics and Italian Americans with suspicion.
Celebrations of Columbus gained momentum as Italian immigration grew from a trickle to a flood. Beginning in the 1880s, Italian immigrants began pouring into the U.S. in search of opportunity and a better life. But the new arrivals were not welcomed by all. Maligned as sinister and criminal, Italian immigrants were the focus of increasing bigotry.
In 1890 anti-Italian sentiment boiled over in New Orleans after police chief David Hennessy, reputed for his arrests of Italian Americans, was murdered. In the aftermath, more than a hundred Sicilian Americans were arrested. When nine were tried and acquitted in March 1891, a furious mob rioted and broke into the city prison, where they beat, shot, and hanged at least 11 Italian American prisoners. None of the rioters who lynched the Italian Americans were prosecuted. It remains one of the largest mass lynchings in the nation’s history.
The brutal killings created tit-for-tat tensions between the U.S. and Italy, which called for reparations for the murders. At first, the U.S. refused, prompting Italy to recall its ambassador and cut off diplomatic relations. The U.S. reciprocated.
But eventually, in an attempt to appease Italy and acknowledge the contributions of Italian Americans on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival, President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 proclaimed a nationwide celebration of ‘Discovery Day,’ recognizing Columbus as ‘the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.’ Eventually, the nations mended their relationship and the U.S. paid $25,000 in reparations.
In the decades after the mass lynching, Italian American advocates pushed for a nationwide holiday, and states slowly began to adopt it. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated it a national holiday, and in 1971 Congress changed the date from October 12 to the second Monday of October. The holiday, writes historian Bénédicte Deschamps, ‘allowed Italian-Americans to celebrate at the same time their Italian identity, their Italian-American group specificity, and their allegiance to America.’”
Here’s the link to the full article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-some-celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-not-columbus-day