Columbus State Community College has removed a statue of Christopher Columbus from its campus, saying the statue was “not consistent” with the school’s values.
The statue, which has stood on the community college’s campus in downtown Columbus, Ohio, since 1988, was disassembled on June 19. It took several hours for workers to saw the statue in half, lift the sections with a crane, and finally place them on a flatbed truck.
The college said the dissembled statue will be placed in storage until it can be put together in a future location. The community college also said it will begin looking for a new art installation as its replacement.
In a message to the campus community, Columbus State Board of Trustees chair Anthony Joseph said this was not an attempt to erase history, but “the first of many steps” as the school seeks to build on and improve its efforts toward “broadened diversity and inclusion.”
