The veto by Republican Mayor Erin Stewart of a resolution to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from a prominent city park stands after an attempt in the Council to override the veto failed to receive enough votes.
While the resolution had been approved by the Council at its meeting on December 9, 2020, by a 10 to 4 vote, in the vote by the Council to overrule the veto on Wednesday, January 13th, there were only eight votes in favor, with six against. Since the Council can only overrule a veto of the mayor when ten votes supporting the veto override, Stewart’s veto stands and the Columbus statue will remain where it is.
Introduced by two Democratic Council members, Ald. Chris Anderson (D-AL) and Ald. Colin Osborn (D-2), the resolution called for the removal of the statue of Columbus from its present location on city parkland at the corner of Main and North streets and replacing it with another symbol honoring Italian Americans in New Britain.
In her veto message, Stewart had mocked the Council for the five months that the issue of removing the statue had been under consideration – while ignoring that advocates for moving the statue had been pressing for swift action on doing so since the summer, criticizing Stewart’s city hall for dragging its feet on the matter.
The issue of moving the statue has been the subject of intense debate for months, with community activists advocating for this removal. Opposition to moving the statue has been expressed, but has drawn strongly worded rebukes from community leaders about racist comments made against removing the statue.
In a December 2nd committee meeting on the resolution, Ald. Osborn had said that the opposition to removal of the statue is about a sense of entitlement over ownership and resources. “Real, true diversity is incorporated into the fabric of the community. It’s incorporated into policy. It’s incorporated in governmental affairs,” he said.
“You can’t say, ‘keep the Christopher Columbus monument up, it’s about diversity, but to hell with the rest of you all who don’t like it,'” Ald. Osborn said. “If you want better, you’re going to seek the truth,” he added. “The entire city of New Britain is not celebrating this monument.”
With nationwide protests against racism and inequality including a focus on bringing down symbols of racism and colonialism, renewed attention to accounts from a priest, Bartolome de las Casas, and others, telling about enslavement, murder, rape and other brutality upon native peoples under Columbus’ conquests have led to successful calls for statues of him being removed in some cities.
The New Britain Racial Justice Coalition has been advocating for the city to remove the statue since July. The group held a protest against the statue in July and has been pressing for its removal since.
New Britain NAACP President Ronald P. Davis commented in July that,
Although Christopher Columbus is remembered as a ground-breaking explorer, we must remember his actions led to the transatlantic slave trade and the mass killing and exploitation of indigenous people. He is the cornerstone of ‘Institutional Racism’ in America.
“As a community, we cannot continue to praise a man who stole land and continually chose to dehumanize native people,” Davis said in his July comments, “Why should we have a statue, or a street dedicated to anyone who stands as a symbol for the violence?”
Now that Stewart’s veto of resolution stands, the issue of moving the statue from city parkland will not be resolved until after the November 2, 2021 city elections.
