The Columbus Day holiday began in the 1920s, when a resurgent Ku Klux Klan tried to create a lily-white country by attacking not just Black Americans, but also immigrants, Jews, and Catholics. In the 1920s, Columbus mattered because celebrating an Italian defended a multicultural society. Now, though, he represents the devastation of America’s Indigenous people.
Today, we celebrate Indigenous People's Day, to honor those who sacrificed so much when the colonizers arrived.
