Chicago Committee Calls for the Removal of 41 Monuments

A Chicago advisory committee on monuments has recommended that 41 statues, plaques and other honors around the city be removed, including three statues of Christopher Columbus.

The committee was created by Lori Lightfoot, Chicago’s Mayor. It was established in response to violent protests against a Columbus statue at Grant Park.

The three Columbus statues in the city were removed preemptively as a measure of public safety. To evaluate Chicago’s remaining monuments, the Chicago Monuments Project began.

The committee operates in a purely advisory report, and it is unclear if Mayor Lightfoot will follow its recommendations, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

As the city weighs the report, it will offer $50,000 in grants for new public art projects, which include a community-led monument to the victims of Chicago’s gun violence, and a memorial to the victims of Chicago Police Department torture, along with six other projects, according to the committee’s report.

Among other criteria, the report called for a removal of a statue that “promoted white supremacy” or “memorialized an individual with links to racism, slavery and genocide”. Many monuments “present inaccurate or demeaning descriptions of American Indians

Monuments marked for removal included, among others, an 2,000 Roman column erected to commemorate fascist Italian aviator Italo Balbo’s 1933 transatlantic flight to Chicago, a statue of Union Gen. Philip Sheridan over his actions in the Indian Wars, and reliefs on the DuSable bridge that “place the history of Chicago and the Battle of Fort Dearborn within an allegorical narrative of the triumph of Western civilization.”

A response from Sergio Giangrande (committee member, former president of Chicago’s Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans) was included in the report.

In reference to two Columbus statues Mr. Giangrande stated that the “Chicago’s Italian American Community donated a substantial amount to see them realized.” He was referring to both the 1893 Arrigo Park and the 1933 Grant Park statues which were created to celebrate the World’s Fairs in Chicago.

” Many Italian Americans feel strongly that these monuments represent our past. “They must be respected as monuments celebrating any other ethnic group,” said Mr. Giangrande.

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