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Detroit removes bust of Christopher Columbus from downtown

A spokesman for Mayor Mike Duggan says putting it in storage will give officials time to decide its future.
Credit: AP
An August 21, 2017 file photo shows the Christopher Columbus statue at Jefferson Avenue and Randolph in Detroit. The City of Detroit removed the bust of Christopher Columbus statue in the median of Randolph Street facing the intersection of Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit on Monday morning, June 15, 2020. (Daniel Mears/Detroit News via AP)

DETROIT — The city of Detroit has removed a bust of explorer Christopher Columbus from a downtown spot after 110 years. 

A spokesman for Mayor Mike Duggan says putting it in storage will give officials time to decide its future.

The move comes while other cities and states have removed Confederate Civil War statues and other public monuments to people with a racist past. 

The Detroit Columbus bust was a gift from the readers of an Italian newspaper in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ death. 

By the 1990s, a new generation of Native American activists blamed Columbus for launching centuries of indigenous genocide. 

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