Why is Christopher Columbus Day a federal holiday?

Trending this week: an elegant webcomic from Matthew Inman (of the Oatmeal) called “Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not).” Relying on A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, Inman’s webcomic animates Columbus’s rapscallion behavior–not least of which the enslavement, sexual exploitation, dismemberment, and killing of the Taino people he met–as well as Columbus Day’s mundane origin. 

Inman’s comic and the discussion that followed reveal how difficult it can be to find a good human hero: Inman proposes a day to celebrate Bartolomé de las Casas, who rejected Columbus’s activities–but who advocated for African slavery. Sadly, it seems as though the comic should have been titled, “Columbus was awful (and this other guy was, too).”

Image courtesy sashafatcat

Columbus Day was created by lobbyists, and recently. In the 1930s, the Knights of Columbus pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt into federal observance of Columbus Day in honor of Christopher Columbus. The Knights of Columbus liked him because he was “a male, Catholic role model their kids could look up to.” Columbus Day generated controversy even then–anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic nativists protested the holiday because Columbus was an Italian Catholic.

October 12, 1934 was the first observance recognizing the anniversary of Columbus’s 1492 landing on San Salvador island in the present-day Bahamas. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established the second Monday in October as a national holiday by presidential proclamation.

Today, the law reads:

The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—(1) designating the second Monday in October as Columbus Day;(2) calling on United States Government officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Columbus Day; and(3) inviting the people of the United States to observe Columbus Day, in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies that express the public sentiment befitting the anniversary of the discovery of America.

36 USC § 107.

Columbus Day is not a long-standing American tradition. It is a recent creation. Laws can be repealed and new laws can be passed. Columbus Day is an important day for many Italian Americans, but wouldn’t it be great if we could honor a real Italian Catholic American hero?

States, territories, and cities offer many other options to celebrate:

• Hawaii – Discoverer’s Day (Hawaii Revised Statutes, Section 8-1.5)
• VI – Virgin Islands/Puerto Rico Friendship Day (Title 1 Virgin Islands Code § 171(a))
• South Dakota – Native Americans’ Day (South Dakota Codified Laws, Section 1-5-1.2)
• Berkeley, CA – Indigenous People’s Day

For more:

• 36 USC § 107 – Columbus Day  
• Library of Congress – Today in History – October 12 – Columbus Day
• Conor Dougherty and Sudeep Reddy, The Wall Street Journal –  Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar? (Oct. 10, 2009). 
• United Native America – National Holiday Petition
• History.com – Columbus Day
• Catholic Encyclopedia – Knights of Columbus
• TIME – A Brief History of Columbus Day
• Eric Kasum, Huffington Post, Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery (Oct. 11, 2010) 
• U.S. Capitol Historical Society – Columbus Day controversy
• Michelle Merlin and Michelle Martinelli, Open Secrets Blog, Center for Responsive Politics – Lobbying for Columbus (Oct. 7, 2012). 
• Walter Russell Mead, Via Meadia, The American Interest, Happy Columbus Day (Observed) (Oct. 10, 2011) 
• Andrea Posey, Northwest Florida Daily News, Misconceptions in history: Columbus Day (Oct. 10, 2013)
• New York Times, In Berkeley, Day for Columbus is Renamed (Jan. 12, 1992).