



A Christopher Columbus monument in Baltimore was vandalized overnight on Monday by protesters rallying against “hate-filled monuments,” the Baltimore Brew reported. 

Protesters smashed a hole in the monument, rendering its inscription, “Sacred to the Memory of Chris.  Columbus Oct. XII MDCC VIIIC,” unreadable, the Brew reported.  The destroyed monument was accompanied by signs reading “Racism: Tear it Down” and “The future is racial and economic justice.” 

Located across from Baltimore’s Herring Run Park at the corner of Harford Road and Walther Avenue, the 44-foot tall obelisk is one of three Columbus monuments in Baltimore, with two others located in Druid Hill Park and the city’s Little Italy neighborhood. 

The now-destroyed monument is the oldest Columbus monument in the city — and North America.  It was first erected in 1792 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in North America, the Baltimore Sun reported. 

The monument’s destruction was captured on a video uploaded to the YouTube channel “Popular Resistance” on Monday, in which the protesters are seen smashing the monument with a sledgehammer as a voiceover narration explains the rationality behind the act of protest. 

Columbus symbolizes the initial invasion of European capitalism into the Western Hemisphere,” the video’s narrator says. “ Columbus initiated a centuries-old wave of terrorism, murder, genocide, rape, slavery, ecological degradation and capitalist exploitation of labor in the Americas.  That Columbian wave of destruction continues on the backs of Indigenous, African-American and brown people. 

“Racist monuments to slave owners and murderers have always bothered me.  Baltimore’s poverty is concentrated in African-American households, and these statues are just an extra slap in the face. ...  What kind of a culture goes to such lengths to build such hate-filled monuments?  What kind of a culture clings to those monuments in 2017?  Part of our evolution as humans requires tearing down monuments to destructive forces and tearing down systems that maintain them.” 

The Baltimore Police Department has not yet responded to a request for comment. 

The monument’s destruction comes amid a wave of movements to tear down Confederate monuments in the wake of the “Unite the Right” rally and deadly car attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The city of Baltimore made the decision to remove their own Confederate monuments overnight a few days after the Charlottesville events, along with a statue of slavery defender and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 





21 PHOTOS Controversy surrounding Confederate memorials See Gallery Controversy surrounding Confederate memorials A monument to former U.S. Vice President and Confederate General John Cabell Breckinridge stands outside the Old Courthouse in Lexington, Ky., U.S., August 15, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston A monument to Confederate General John Hunt Morgan stands encased in a protective scaffolding because of local construction, outside the Historic Lexington Courthouse in Lexington, Ky., U.S., August 15, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston A municipal worker attempts to remove paint from a monument dedicated to Confederate soldier John B. Castleman that was vandalized late Saturday night in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 14, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Municipal workers attempt to remove paint from a monument dedicated to Confederate soldier John B. Castleman that was vandalized late Saturday night in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 14, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Protesters gather below a monument dedicated to Confederate Major John B. Castleman while demanding that it be removed from the public square in Louisville, Ky., US, August 14, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston A plaque dedicated to Confederate soldier John B. Castleman is seen after it was vandalized late Saturday night in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 14, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston Municipal workers attempt to remove paint from a monument dedicated to Confederate soldier John B. Castleman that was vandalized late Saturday night in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 14, 2017.  REUTERS/Bryan Woolston White supremacists carry a shield and Confederate flag as they arrive at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017.  REUTERS/Joshua Roberts A member of a white supremacists militia stands near a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017.  REUTERS/Joshua Roberts CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 13: Police stand watch near the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the center of Emancipation Park the day after the Unite the Right rally devolved into violence August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the statue and change the name of the space from Lee Park to Emancipation Park, sparking protests from white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right.' ( Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 13: Police stand watch near the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the center of Emancipation Park the day after the Unite the Right rally devolved into violence August 13, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the statue and change the name of the space from Lee Park to Emancipation Park, sparking protests from white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right.' ( Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 12: White nationalists, neo-Nazis, the KKK and members of the 'alt-right' attempt to organize inside Emancipation Park during the Unite the Right rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  After clashes with anti-facist protesters and police the rally was declared an unlawful gathering and people were forced out of Lee Park, where a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is slated to be removed. ( Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) ANNAPOLIS, MD - AUGUST 16: Two women take pictures in front of the statue of US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney that sits in front of the Maryland State House, on August 16, 2017 in Annapolis, Maryland.  Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has called for the removal of the statue.  Taney was the author of the Dred Scott decision. ( Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) LEXINGTON, KY-AUGUST 14: A monument to John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate General during the Civil War, stands near the old Historic Lexington Courthouse August 14, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky.  The Mayor of Lexington, Jim Gray, announced he has vowed to remove the statue, along with a statue of John C. Breckinridge which also stands at the courthouse, following the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Gray tweeted, 'We cannot let them define our future.' ( Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) DEMOPOLIS, AL - JUNE 14: The marble statue of a Rebel soldier was unceremoniously toppled from the granite pedestal where he had presided since 1910, on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Demopolis, AL.  About 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 16, 2016, an on-duty patrol car with the Demopolis, Ala., Police Department proceeded north on North Main Avenue to the intersection of West Capitol Street, where it crashed into the citys Confederate memorial.  The impact of the Dodge Charger broke the statue off at the shins.  Undamaged was the inscription on the base: Our Confederate Dead. ( photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS, UNITED STATES - APRIL 3.  The Jefferson Davis statue stands across the street from First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans, on April 3, 2016.  It is one of several confederate statues in the city. ( Photo by Ben Depp for The Washington Post via Getty Images) NEW ORLEANS, LA - MAY 04: New Orleans police officers stand guard at the Jefferson Davis monument on May 4, 2017 in New Orleans, Loiusiana.  The Louisiana House committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs voted Wednesday to advance House Bill 71 that would forbid the removal of Confederate monuments in Louisiana as the City Council in New Orleans tries to move three statues of Confederate luminaries from public spaces and into museums.  Protests that have at times turned violent have erupted at the site of the Jefferson Davis Monument after the Battle at Liberty Place monument was taken down in the middle of the night on April 24. ( Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) A 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall Sunday after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum along with a companion statue of President Woodrow Wilson.  Recent racially-motivated shootings in the U.S. have called for reexamining some cultural icons of the Confederate South. ( Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images) Attorney Kirk Lyons disagrees as a 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall Sunday after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum along with a companion statue of President Woodrow Wilson.  Recent racially-motivated shootings in the U.S. have called for reexamining some cultural icons of the Confederate South. ( Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images) ROCKVILLE, MD -May 5, 2016: A life-size bronze statue of a Confederate soldier stands in a grove outside the courthouse on May 5, 2016 in Rockville, MD.(Photo by Eric Kruszewski/For The Washington Post via Getty Images) A 1933 statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis is removed from University of Texas' South Mall Sunday after UT President Gregory Fenves cleared it to be placed in a campus museum along with a companion statue of President Woodrow Wilson.  Recent racially-motivated shootings in the U.S. have called for reexamining some cultural icons of the Confederate South. ( Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE

The targeting of racist monuments has now extended to depictions of Columbus, who has long been criticized for his treatment of indigenous peoples upon arriving and claiming to have “discovered” North America. 

“Everything else we talk about stems from that one particular man,” Stacey Little, a rally organizer advocating to remove a Columbus monument in Ohio, told WOSU. “ How do we start the conversation?  Let’s start at the beginning.  We can’t skip and jump and hop because we want to and we feel like it’s convenient.  Let’s start at where it originated and go from there, and he’s the originator.”