This petition is a testimony to the will and desire of the people of San Francisco and beyond to see the removal of monuments honoring individuals whose legacies exemplify and uphold institutions of racism, sexism, slavery, imperialism, rape, genocide and other Human Rights atrocities. The Coit Tower Christopher Columbus statue is one such monument and the signatures present here represent individuals in favor of its removal. 

While it is understood the statue is intended to honor the Italian residents of North Beach and their heritage, the statue is an even larger representation of the violence and injustice that has befallen the Indigenous and Black people on the American continents, and an oppressive and offensive presence for these populations in San Francisco and beyond. The insistence that he be celebrated as “the man who discovered America” is not only a Eurocentric distortion of history and an untruth, but a blatant expression of disregard for the Native peoples who had established and upheld civilization here for millennia. 

Seeing that Columbus’s sole contribution to history was the initiation of a centuries-long regime of genocide, rape, plundering, and white supremacy, and seeing that we as a country and global society are seeking to acknowledge and correct this history of blood, injustice and exploitation, it would only be responsible and considerate to remove this statue. It is but one step toward recompense and healing.

Christoper Columbus Statues Removed​

Global Protests for Statues To Be Removed​

Recent SF Article About Columbus Statue

Thank you Jacob Booth of New Haven, CT for the succinct wording.