Providence’s former Christopher Columbus statue is a fixture in Johnston’s Columbus Day celebrations, ever since the statue was relocated to the town two years ago. The Bronze statue had occupied Providence’s Columbus Square since 1893 but was removed in 2020 after protests that accused the statue of glorifying the Italian explorer’s role in colonialism, slavery and the genocide of indigenous people.
Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. believes that celebrating Columbus is a point of pride for Italian-Americans and that people have gotten used to having the statue around – aside from one tomato-throwing incident. Polisena is Italian-American, as is nearly half the town’s population.
