Christopher Columbus is far from the heroic explorer too many curriculums believe him to be. Columbus, who set out for India in search of spices, instead landed on a series of islands in the Caribbean and later, America. What happened next was horrific: millions of natives were enslaved, raped, murdered, and killed by diseases Columbus brought with him. He didn't "discover" America, he found native-inhabited land and claimed it for himself, using extreme violence and cruelty. Overall, he was a terrible man that should not be celebrated at all.

That being said, numerous statues and monuments to his existence stand still. There's Columbus day on October 12th, statues throughout the United States, and most relevant to this petition, a statue of him at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh has removed racist statues before, including the Stephen Foster Memorial statue, so why not this one? 

Anti-racism is the only way forward in which all people in the US have a fair and equal future. Removing this statue and replacing it with a statue of a famous Black Pittsburgher; like Billy Strayhorn, a musician, Daisy Elizabeth Adams Lampkin, a suffragette, Virginia P. Florence, the first Black librarian in the US, or many other incredible figures. There are hundreds of options for a replacement, none of which terrorized native people and committed mass genocide. 

Please sign this petition to help make a change!