Christopher Columbus was beheaded in Boston, Massachusetts, before being removed by the city.
The statue of Christopher Columbus in Boston’s North End was beheaded by an unknown party during the Uprising of 2020.1 A day before, the Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia was toppled and removed to a lake. After the beheading, the city opted to remove the statue to prevent further vandalism.2
This was not the first time the Columbus statue was vandalized. In 2015, the statue was painted red and the base was adorned with the words, “Black Lives Matter."3 In 2002 and 2006, the statue was beheaded, and it was vandalized with paint several times during the 2000s.4
Christopher Columbus played an instrumental role in, among other crimes, the genocide of the Taíno and Arawak people.5