COLUMBUS, Ohio — A statue of Christopher Columbus will not be removed from in front of the Ohio Statehouse until at least 2025, officials said Thursday.
The 9-foot-tall, copper statue of Columbus will remain erected in front of the Statehouse in the largest city that bears the explorer’s name until a formal process for removal is undergone by the agency that manages the grounds.
The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board met for the first time since January on Thursday morning to discuss the statue that has been on the Statehouse grounds since 1932.
The board voted to draft rules in place for the first time that would outline a policy of removing a statue or monument off of Capital Grounds.
“We want to make good decisions that are not necessarily based on the moment of the day but longterm,” House Speaker Larry Householder told reporters after the meeting. “These are historical grounds. This is forever.”
The decision will allow any group or individual to submit a proposal to the board for the removal of the Columbus statue, but the process to get final approval will take a period of five years, meaning the earliest the statue could be removed will not be until sometime in 2025.
The meeting to discuss the removal of the statue comes as two others have fallen in the namesake city in recent weeks as the nation faces a racial reckoning over the monuments and statues dedicated to Confederates and other historical figures who repressed or oppressed other people.
A statue of the explorer located on the campus of Columbus State Community College was removed June 19 and the one in front of Columbus’ City Hall was removed July 1 and placed in storage.
“We do not seek to erase history, but to make an intentional shift in what we visibly honor and celebrate as an institution,” Columbus State Board of Trustees President Anthony Joseph said upon announcing the removal.
Householder called both of those removals “knee jerk reactions,” that did not allow for all parties to weigh in.
There has long been debate across the nation over the Columbus’ legacy, with some calling him a symbol of the conquest and subjugation of indigenous people. Columbus, Ohio’s capital, quietly canceled its Columbus Day holiday beginning in 2018.
Dozens of other statues in honor of Columbus have also come down around the country as nationwide protests took place in response to the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Householder told reporters at this point he would not be inclined to support the removal of the Columbus statue.
“Nobody’s perfect, the Republican lawmaker said. ” I always look at all of these historical figures in the light of their accomplishments, more than whether they are a perfect human or not.”
