Origin of Columbus Day: Here's Why Americans Really Started Celebrating the Holiday
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Columbus Day is both a celebratory and divisive day for many American communities. The current debates around Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day often pit one against the other.
But the American origins of Columbus Day, a federal holiday established in 1937, show us that the modern celebration has less to do with Christopher Columbus and his voyages to the Caribbean and more to do with the mistreatment of Catholic Americans, which included Italian immigrants who experienced widespread discrimination and violence in the late 19th century.
Creating the story of America
Christopher Columbus never set foot in the continental United States, and his journey to the Western Hemisphere occurred 284 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So why do we include Columbus’ journey as part of the American story? The answer lies in the founding of our nation.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, continents were often depicted as allegorical figures on maps and in European Art. Sometimes, these illustrations took the form of goddess-like women. After Europeans realized the world had more land masses, North America was assigned a figure that became known as “Columbia” at the end of the 17th century. By the 18th century, both Europeans and Americans used Columbia’s image to represent the new United States, which had just fought and won for freedom from the British monarchy.
After the ratification of the Constitution in 1787 and the death of George Washington in 1799, early Americans began to compile the story of their young nation. Eager to distance themselves from England, these Americans felt Columbus had several appealing qualities: he was born a common man, he did not sail for the crown of England (rather for Portugal and Spain), and his knowledge and leadership skills were responsible for his success.
This simplified version of Columbus’s story fit the needs of America’s 18th century political leaders, who were almost exclusively White Protestant men. But there was a woman who played a role in shaping the symbols of early America: Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved African American poet. Her widely published poem “His Excellency General Washington” casts Columbia as Washington’s guide during the Revolutionary War.
Columbia, the figure who was already a symbol of our nation, eventually became interchangeable with Columbus the historic figure, creating a new patriotic symbol akin to the bald eagle and the United States flag. And so Columbus became a starting point for the young nation’s written history. We still start with this history today. If you went to public school in the United States, you probably learned the simple rhyme “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”
New immigrants arrive in the U.S.
So then, how do Italian Americans become the party planners for Columbus Day? One hundred years after America’s founding, there was a significant shift in how the Columbus story and symbol were used in the U.S.
In the middle of the 19th century, when the U.S. was in the midst of a Civil War, the country of Italy was forming into a nation. This period is known as Italian unification (the Risorgimento), and it’s an important historical moment that contributed to the mass emigration of Italians to destinations throughout the world, including the U.S.
In the early 1880s, America transitioned from a farming society into an industrial powerhouse. Laborers were needed in huge numbers and employers wanted to pay low wages. Simultaneously, an influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italians, poured into the country in search of opportunity and a better life. Like many immigrants today, 19th century immigrants were leaving countries with political unrest, poor living conditions, violence, and other difficulties.
The sudden population shift upset some Americans who feared change and harbored bias. Unlike previous waves of immigrants from Northern and Western Europe, the customs, languages, and religions of Southern and Eastern Europeans were seen as too foreign by many white, Protestant Americans. Some believed these new immigrants would not blend into the nation. Discrimination led to intolerance in many communities, especially towards Italian immigrants from Sicily and Southern Italy. They were vilified in American media, newspaper articles, and cartoons, and were often described as “swarthy,” unintelligent, and criminal.
One tragic event got the attention of both the American and Italian governments. On October 16, 1890, New Orleans police chief David Hennessey was murdered. As he was dying, he allegedly described his attackers using a slur for Italians. In response, numerous Italian immigrants were arrested and 19 men, including one as young as 14, were indicted for the crime. However, in court, they were acquitted.
Enraged by the lack of a guilty verdict and encouraged by the local newspaper, a mob stormed the prison to avenge Hennessey’s death on March 14, 1891. They brutally murdered 11 of the Italian men in a lynching. In response to the tragedy, Italy cut off diplomatic relations with the United States, and American leaders scrambled to push back on the negative depictions of Italian immigrants that sparked the violence.
Creating an “Italian” hero
One year later, the U.S. embarked on a very public, national celebration called “Discoverer’s Day” to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ landing. Newspapers published his accounts in full-page spreads across the nation, churches and synagogues held services, and public-school students participated in patriotic marches. There were American symbols at the demonstrations – flags, Uncle Sam, and red, white, and blue bunting.
Political leaders doubled down on the image of Columbus as a role model. As U.S. Congressman Benjamin Franklin Meyers said in The Patriot-News: “If Christopher Columbus had been an American, native and to the manner born, his career could not have illustrated more singularly the character of a self-made man risen to greatness and honors…his whole life is a lesson that may be studied with profit by the youth of our country.” For the first time, Columbus was acknowledged as an immigrant and a Catholic, and potentially an American.
Meyers’ statement, which echoed what other politicians said across the country, was made at a time when America’s foreign-born population had risen to 15%. Columbus was offered to the public as more than a figure in the history books. He was an American hero and he was foreign born. For Italian immigrants and Italian Americans, Columbus was an avenue that allowed them to be written into the American story.
Another note of importance: 1892 just happened to be an election year. President Benjamin Harrison recognized that the growing American Catholic voting bloc – including Italian, Irish, and German Americans – was growing and might help him clinch the election. If Harrison was to support an “American historical figure” with Catholic roots, he might have a better shot at securing their votes. It was a bet, however, that didn’t pay off. Third Party candidate and populist, James B. Weaver, split the vote, handing the victory to Grover B. Cleveland.
From this moment on, many in the Italian American community embraced “Columbus Day” even though “Discoverer’s Day” was meant as a one-time national celebration. They celebrated him annually and mutual aid societies, small businesses, and community leaders hosted parades and dinners. By the mid-20th century, Columbus celebrations were synonymous with celebrations of Italian pride as well as American patriotism. It was a way for Italian immigrants and their families to show American citizens that, they too, were “good Americans.” The meaning of the American symbol of Columbus began to shift to mean “Italian American.”
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Columbus Day a federal holiday at the urging of prominent Italian American leaders, such as Generoso Pope in New York City, and Catholic lobbying groups, such as the Knights of Columbus. And so Columbus Day became an official holiday on the American calendar.
How we look at Columbus Day today
Prior to the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in 1992, Americans re-evaluated the legacy of Columbus in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. Many descendants of those Italian immigrants especially considered the impact his voyages had on Indigenous communities in North and South America.
Native American activists helped the nation understand more about the full picture. They emphasized that Columbus’ voyages were the catalyst for the Columbian Exchange, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the beginning of the near eradication of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. A re-examination of primary sources, including the Spanish language diaries of Columbus and his contemporary Bartolomé de las Casas, show a motivation for gold, human resources, and the spread of Christianity outside Europe.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day arose out of a desire in Native American communities to celebrate the history and culture of peoples indigenous to the Americas. In states with few Italian Americans and larger native populations, such as Colorado, Alaska, South Dakota, and Vermont, Columbus Day is not celebrated. Hawai’i celebrates “Discoverer’s Day,” but instead of honoring European explorers, they honor their Polynesian ancestors who also navigated the ocean. While Columbus Day is a federal holiday, states and cities can make decisions about what to (or not to) celebrate. For example, the City of Pittsburgh celebrates both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Unlike earlier generations, today, we are reckoning with the reality that Columbus and his crew engaged in colonization, acts of violence, enslavement, and decimated the population of the Taíno people. Compared to the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation as an American hero has certainly changed. Many Italian Americans now understand that a holiday in his name does not celebrate the positive contributions of Italian immigrants and vibrant culture of Americans of Italian ancestry.
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