I wrote the article below about the history of Columbus Day and how it is celebrated in the United States for the Diversity Committee of the college where I work. It appeared in the committee's fall newsletter in September.
If you attended grade school in California starting in the 1990s, you probably think of Columbus Day as a quasi-holiday in October—a day that the federal government, the US Postal Service, and some schools set aside as a holiday, but not a “real” holiday like the Fourth of July or Martin Luther King Day, which almost everyone observes.
If you attended grade school in California starting in the 1990s, you probably think of Columbus Day as a quasi-holiday in October—a day that the federal government, the US Postal Service, and some schools set aside as a holiday, but not a “real” holiday like the Fourth of July or Martin Luther King Day, which almost everyone observes.
But if you grew up in the early twentieth century, particularly someplace like San Francisco or New York, Columbus Day was a serious holiday, with a citywide parade, floats, and replicas of the ships Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina.
How did Columbus Day become a recognized U.S. holiday in the first place? And how did it get demoted, so to speak, to a minor holiday, officially celebrated in only about 2/3 of the states? What are some of the controversies surrounding Columbus Day that have led certain states to replace it with other holidays which are meant to minimize the role of Christopher Columbus?
Children dressed in costume for Columbus Day parade, Oakland, CA, 1925. Note children at left
Children dressed in costume for Columbus Day parade, Oakland, CA, 1925. Note children at left
dressed as American symbolic figures, the child in the middle as a Native American, and the
children at right in traditional Italian clothes. Courtesy of Oakland Public Library, History and
Maps division.
Most of us growing up in the United States learned in grade school about Christopher Columbus (born Cristoforo Colombo in the republic of Genoa, part of present-day Italy), who was commissioned by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to search for a western sailing route to Asia. On the first of four voyages to the American continent, Columbus’s expedition sighted land in what is now the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, thereby “discovering” the New World, at least from a European perspective. It’s unclear whether Columbus at his death believed he had found a faster trade route to Asia, or if he realized he had sailed to an entirely new continent.
In the eighteenth century, as the American colonies began their political struggle for independence from Britain, the colonists sought a historic figure they could elevate as a founder of the nation.[i] They rejected John Cabot, also born in Genoa but commissioned by England, who had been the first to land in North America proper in 1497[ii]. For the Founding Fathers like Washington and Jefferson, Columbus was “a fitting hero for the new revolutionary nation,” as he had “defied both church and accepted wisdom by sailing into the unknown.”[iii] The name “Columbia,” derived from Columbus’ name, was first used in 1775 and was meant to invoke “an idealized state of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”[iv] By the time the war for independence from Britain had ended and the new government was being formed, the Italian explorer was held in such esteem that the country’s new capital (formally, the District of Columbia) being constructed on the banks of the Potomac River was named in Columbus’ honor, as well as the state capitals in Ohio (Columbus) and South Carolina (Columbia).
There are conflicting accounts of the first celebration of Columbus’s discovery in the United States, one that it was held in New York City in 1792[v] (the 300th anniversary of his landing) and another that it was first celebrated in San Francisco almost a century later, in 1869[vi]. But in the years leading up to the 400th anniversary of the discovery in 1892, a Catholic fraternal order known as the Knights of Columbus spearheaded efforts to have Columbus Day declared an official holiday.[vii] This was partly to celebrate the accomplishments of the county’s burgeoning population of Italian descent, which was being fueled by immigration due to widespread political and social unrest in Italy in the nineteenth century. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison made an official proclamation to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, and the following year, the World’s Columbian Exposition[viii], also known as the Chicago World’s Fair or “the White City,” opened in Chicago to celebrate the anniversary of the discovery. Attended by more than 24 million people over a six-month period, the exposition boasted pavilions representing some forty-seven different countries. Its opening ceremony was claimed to have been witnessed by the largest crowd in the history of the world up to that point.[ix]
An account of the Columbus Day pageant held in 1947 in San Francisco described an evening Grand Ball and Coronation where a young woman was chosen to play the role of Queen Isabella and crowned in an elaborate ceremony. The next afternoon, a parade was held across the city with over 5,000 marchers taking part, and thousands more watching a procession featuring eighty floats and other units. As part of the festivities, ships representing the Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina landed at the shore near North Beach, the center of the city’s Italian American population, where an actor portraying Columbus exited one of the ships and greeted Queen Isabella and her court.[x]
In 1907, Colorado governor Alvah Adams issued a proclamation calling on state residents to commemorate Columbus Day, but it wasn’t until 1909 that New York became the first state to pass a state law declaring the day as an official state holiday[xi]. President Franklin Roosevelt issued an official proclamation in 1937, setting October 12th as Columbus Day[xii]. Thirty-one years later, in 1968, Pres. Lyndon Johnson signed a law instituting the day as a federal holiday. As a new federal policy of scheduling federal holidays to create three-day weekends for the public, Columbus Day was designated as the second Monday in October.[xiii]
Today, Columbus Day is recognized as an official holiday by the U.S. federal government and 34 states across the nation, as well as the District of Columbia[xiv].
Pew Research Center writer Drew DeSilver wrote in 2013 that Columbus Day was “one of the most inconsistently celebrated U.S. holidays,” with only 23 states of those states plus Washington, D.C. giving its state workers a paid holiday.
Pew Research Center writer Drew DeSilver wrote in 2013 that Columbus Day was “one of the most inconsistently celebrated U.S. holidays,” with only 23 states of those states plus Washington, D.C. giving its state workers a paid holiday.
In California, Columbus Day is an official state holiday, but it was removed from the list of paid holidays for state workers in 2009 to reduce state expenses during the recession. In 2013, state Assemblyman Roger Hernandez introduced a bill to replace Columbus Day with Native American Day as a paid state holiday. In a media interview, Hernandez said the holiday would serve to bring “proper recognition to people who have suffered and been displaced…[namely] the original settlers in the Americas.”[xv] In 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an amended bill into law, making Native American Day an official unpaid state holiday in California on the fourth Friday in September, however not replacing Columbus Day.
Among the states that do not observe Columbus Day are South Dakota and Hawaii. In 1989, in an effort to improve relations between its Native American population and white residents, the South Dakota state legislature declared the following year as the “Year of Reconciliation.” At the same time, they approved changing the name of Columbus Day to Native American Day, which continues to takes places on the same date in October[xvi]. In 1988, Hawaii replaced Columbus Day with an unofficial state holiday called Discoverers’ Day to honor the Polynesians who first settled Hawaii (the official state holiday in Hawaii for Columbus Day was replaced by Martin Luther King Day).[xvii]
Controversy over Columbus Day has largely coincided with the increased focus on multicultural education and diversity that became prominent during the late 1980s and 1990s in this country. Compared to a more traditional view of United States history, multicultural education stressed the contributions of populations such as women and racial and ethnic minorities who had been relatively overlooked in traditional accounts of history.
Starting in the late 1980s, Native American organizations began holding large-scale public demonstrations against the celebration of Columbus Day. Objecting to the glorification of Christopher Columbus as a heroic explorer, these groups viewed Columbus’ arrival in the New World as the beginning of the oppression of their ancestors as well as the rapid extermination of their peoples. As European colonies from Spain, Portugal, England, and other countries began their expansion across the continent, native tribes were increasingly forced onto undesirable lands and, eventually, today’s tribal reservations.
Native activist Russell Means, a founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM), became a focus of media attention in 1989 when he poured blood over a statue of Columbus during the annual Columbus Day parade held in Denver, Colorado. In his speech, Means charged Columbus with having founded a land distribution system for Spain in the New World that had enslaved and killed 300,000 indigenous people in present day Haiti, and was responsible for destroying the lives of an additional 20 million people throughout the Caribbean islands, Central and South America during the period of Spanish colonization. He further stated that Native Americans were “refugees” in their own land, and had been “an expendable people” in this country since the days of Washington and Jefferson.[xviii]
Somewhat related to Native Americans’ objections to Columbus Day is the response by many of those in Latino communities. Many Latinos and Hispanics in the United States celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month during the period from September 15th to Oct 15th, which typically coincides with the observance of Columbus Day. In fact, many Latinos call the holiday El Día de la Raza, or in English, The Day of the Race. The rationale is that Columbus “first brought together the peoples of the Old World and New under the banner of Spain, founding, in a sense, a new people: the Hispanic Americans.”[xix]
Chicano students at the University of Wisconsin Madison protest the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the New World in 1992. Photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin Archives.
Chicano students at the University of Wisconsin Madison protest the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the New World in 1992. Photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin Archives.
What are your feelings about Christopher Columbus and the legacy of early European explorers? To what extent should holidays honor important figures from our national history, and what justifies removing or replacing an existing holiday?
[i] Boyle, David. Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, and the race for America. New York: Walker & Co., 2008. p. 344. Print.
[ii] For more information on the rivalry between Columbus and Cabot, who sailed for England’s Henry VII and first landed in present-day Newfoundland, Canada in 1497, see Hunter, Doug. The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a lost history of discovery. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
[iii] Boyle. p. 344.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] The American Book of Days. Ipswich, MA: Wilson, 2015. p. 807. Print.
[vi] Shearer, Benjamin F. Culture and Customs of the United States.Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008. p. 163. Print.
[vii] Myers, Robert J. Celebrations: the complete book of American holidays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972. p. 244. Print.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Boyle. p. 345.
[x] Speroni, Charles. “The Development of the Columbus Day pageant of San Francisco.” In The Folklore of American History. Eds. Henning Cohen and Tristan Potter Coffin. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1987. p. 301. Print.
[xi] American Book of Days. p. 807. Print.
[xii] Myers. p. 246. Print.
[xiii] American Book of Days. p. 807. Print.
[xiv] Leiter, Richard, ed. National Survey of State Laws. Detroit: Gale, 2008. p. 295-300. Web.
[xv] Almendrala, Anna. “Columbus Day to Native American Day? CA Assemblyman Roger Hernandez introduces Bill AB 55.” The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 May 2015.
[xvi] “South Dakota celebrates Native American Day.” Rapid City Journal 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 May 2015.
[xvii] “Discoverers’ Day is not a state holiday.” KHON2.com. KHON, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 4 May 2015.
[xviii] Sinisi, J. Sebastian. “Activist accused in defacement of statue; Russell Means decries Columbus as a murderer.” Denver Post 10 Oct. 1989. ProQuest Newsstand. 4 May 2015.
[xix] Ochoa, George, and Carter Smith. Atlas of Hispanic-American History. New York: Facts on File, 2009. p. 23. Print.
