Molly Montgomery Photo
2018 protest unofficially renames Columbus Family Academy, with blood on hands of papier maché Columbus.
The Board of Education voted overwhelmingly in support of removing Christopher Columbus’s name from a Fair Haven K‑8 school — as well as from an October holiday on the district’s calendar — in the city’s latest reckoning with the 15th-century explorer’s violent legacy.
School board members took that vote Monday night during their most recent regular bimonthly meeting, which was held online via the Zoom videoconferencing platform.
They voted 6 – 1 in support of renaming Christopher Columbus Family Academy to a new name, yet to be determined. They said the Board of Ed’s Facilities Naming Committee will take the lead on coming up with a new name for the elementary and middle school.
They also voted 6 – 1 to switch Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the public school district’s calendar.
“The question is should we memorialize people who have committed crimes against humanity? I think the historical record about Columbus is very clear,” board member Edward Joyner said in support of the renaming motions.
The only board member to vote against ditching Columbus’s name was Darnell Goldson.
He said New Haven’s Italian American community should have more input on the matter.
And he argued that, if Board of Education members at some point in the future decided they wanted to rename Barack H. Obama Magnet University School, he would want New Haven’s African American community to have ample opportunities to speak up.
“I had some people who came up to me [during that naming] to say that he killed thousands upon thousands in the Iraq wars,” Goldson said about Obama. “I don’t want someone to change that school’s name because they say that he was a war criminal. I want to make sure my race is represented in that decision-making process.”
The decision to rename Columbus Academy and to replace Columbus Day on the school calendar is part of a national conversation about who gets memorialized, and about what message that sends to marginalized members of a community.
That conversation turned local recently when the Wooster Square community came to a consensus to remove the Christopher Columbus statue from the park.
Afterwards, the city parks commission agreed, and announced that the city will remove the public statue within 60 days.
Then on Sunday, a coalition of community leaders penned a letter asking the school board to rename Columbus Family Academy, celebrate October as Indigenous Peoples’ Month, and revise history curricula. Signees included the school’s principal and several academy parents.
Board President Yesenia Rivera and board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur presented the Christopher Columbus renaming motions together.
In response to Goldson’s criticism, Mayor Justin Elicker argued that the local Italian American community will have a chance to provide input on the new school name, and has been involved in recent conversations about the Wooster Square statue.
“I’m glad the New Haven Board of Education has taken proactive steps to change the name of Columbus Academy,” Elicker said after the meeting. “Christopher Columbus, for many Italian Americans, is a celebration of Italian heritage. But Christopher Columbus also represents a time of colonialism and atrocities committed. I am a parent at this school, and I am proud we can take the right steps to address history in a respectful way.”
Jackson-McArthur was similarly skeptical of Goldson’s dissent. “I know many people of Italian descent and I haven’t gotten anyone who said they were against this,” she said during Monday’s meeting. “This is ridiculous. We are trying to be a better society and to be more kind.”