This month, activists tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the Minneapolis State Capitol. Mainstream media news coverage inevitably focused on the activists’ view that Columbus was a racist villain, whose discovery of America led to the demise of native cultures.

Few press reports acknowledged that the statue was erected by Italian American immigrants, themselves victims of discrimination, back in 1931 to celebrate both the man who discovered America as well as their own contributions to our country. Nor did they note that an Italian immigrant who helped build Grand Central Station, and his son, sculpted the monument as a symbol of the acceptance of Italian immigrants in Minnesota.