Cambridge City Council Votes to Rename Columbus Day

Photo via iStock.com / Craig McCausland

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue—to maim and massacre thousands of Native Americans.

On Monday night, the Cambridge City Council voted in favor of a resolution that will rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The holiday name change won’t affect the rest of the state.

According to Boston.com, a committee report states that the measure will officially recognize “the suffering [Native Americans] faced following European conquest of their land.” Universal Hub reports that the resolution passed by a unanimous vote of 9-0.

Opponents to the name change claim that changing the holiday’s name is a slap in the face to Italian Americans since Columbus was born in Italy, but Cambridge Vice Mayor Marc McGovern disagreed before Monday’s vote, saying that the explorer was “the first person to start the genocide that took place in this part of the world.”

“I view changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a cleansing for me, as an Italian-America,” McGovern said, according to the Boston Globe. “I do not want Christopher Columbus to be representing my culture.”

Cambridge joins several cities across the country that have recently abolished the Columbus Day tradition, including Albuquerque, Seattle, and St. Paul.

Now if we could only get that Washington football team to change its stupid logo.