The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to swap its Columbus Day holiday with “Indigenous Peoples Day.”
Supporters of the decision to rename the holiday claimed that Christopher Columbus did not deserve to be celebrated due to his ties to slavery and violence, KABC-TV reported.
Several Italian Americans opposed the renaming, associating Columbus Day with a celebration of Italy, given the explorer’s Italian heritage.
Mitch O’Farrell, a Los Angeles council member, cited “Columbus’ legacy of extreme violence, enslavement and brutality” and “the suffering, destruction of cultures, and subjugation of Los Angeles’ original indigenous people, who were here thousands of years before anyone else” when he introduced the motion in November 2015, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Los Angeles’ Elections, Intergovernmental Relations and Neighborhoods Committee voted unanimously to swap Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples Day in June before the decision moved on to the city council.
The city’s decision mirrors other anti-Columbus efforts across the country. Cambridge, Mass. voted to rename Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in 2016, and a New York resident found a beheaded Christopher Columbus statue Wednesday.
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