Over 10,000 people have signed an online petition seeking to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus in Minnesota and replacing it with one of the late singer Prince, who was born in Minneapolis.
"We, the undersigned, do not believe that Columbus represents the values Minnesotans carry," reads the petition. "Rather than glorify a man who wanted to extinguish Black and Native peoples, we should honor members of our community whose leadership we find inspirational."
The campaign, which actually kicked off back in 2017 but resurfaced following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, expressively seeks to "replace the statue of Columbus with statues representative of Minnesota's Black and Native Communities."
The request comes at the heels of a nation-wide movement pushing for the removal of Confederate monuments in cities across the country. Seen as symbols of white supremacy, statues have been forcibly pulled down or removed by officials in Jacksonville, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; and Montgomery, Alabama, among other towns. History is indeed unfolding right in front of our eyes.
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