![]() ![]() Members of a religious minority-19th-century Roman Catholics-in the face of palpable anti-Catholic sentiment, seized on Columbus as they staked out a claim to belonging. It remains an expression of the desires of late 19th century American Catholics, most of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, for an honorable place in the American past. Part of the reason we have this holiday is quite understandable. Of all these folks whom we commemorate, Columbus alone was not in any way of “The People of the United States.” So it’s a good question, objectively, as to how he received a holiday in his honor in this nation-to which he did not belong. Ten of them are clearly dates of commemoration-we remember together as a nation: Martin Luther King Jr., presidents Lincoln and Washington, those who died in war, the meaning of independence, those who labor, the ending of slavery and Columbus. ![]() ![]() With the addition of Juneteenth this year, there are now 12 federal holidays in the United States. ![]() He said it’s time to end the holiday and to take seriously the full humanity of Indigenous people. Gregory Dowd, the Helen Hornbeck Tanner Collegiate Professor of History and American Culture, is an expert on Native American and early American history. ![]()
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