For more than a century, Columbus Day was a chance for Italian Americans to celebrate their heritage. In 2021, responding to a wave of protests about the murder of George Floyd and criticism that the Italian explorer had caused immeasurable harm to the Western Hemisphere as a murderous colonizer, Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order that changed the state holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Last month, a Pennsylvania court ruled that Kenney, as a city mayor, did not have the authority to delete or change a state holiday.
So Oct. 13 of this year will be celebrated, officially, again, as Columbus Day.
All of the back and forth raises the question: Can we celebrate indigenous people AND Italian Americans without disparaging or cancelling the other?
A decision about authority
The decision by seven Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judges was unanimous, and narrow. They ruled that Kenney violated the separation of powers, and that he had no standing to change a decision by the state legislature. It did not address the arguments about discrimination and equal protection — which were major points for the plaintiffs.
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian Organizations, Councilmember Mark Squilla and others alleged the order discriminated against Italian Americans and violated their equal protection rights, as well as exceeding Kenney’s legal authority by unilaterally changing a state holiday.
A step back, and common ground
It’s probably worth taking a step back here to put some context around what’s a very heated debate about identity and power in Philly.
Columbus Day came to be in 1892, on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage. It followed the lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans, and was proclaimed as a one-time holiday by President Bejamin Harrison. It caught on, and has been celebrated for most of the ensuing 130-plus years.
That context helps to explain the statement to Billy Penn by Basil M. Russo, the president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations:
“Mayor Kenney’s bigoted effort to attempt to deny us our one day of recognition, which was established to commemorate the largest mass lynching in American history, was deeply hurtful and offensive. This ruling not only rectifies that situation, but also focuses a much needed spotlight on that injustice.”
Even so, Russo said his organization was in full support of “the celebration of a day honoring the Native American community, so long as it’s celebrated on a day other than Columbus Day.”
Attorney George Bochetto filed the lawsuit to return the holiday’s name to Columbus Day. He told the Inquirer the court made the right decision and said, “It may be the best and most celebrated Columbus Day in a long time.”
Advisors of the Indigenous Peoples Day Philly Board of Directors said they believe Philadelphia “has room for both holidays.”
“We recognize that the August 6 court ruling was based on a ‘separation of powers’ issue and not on the merits of Indigenous Peoples Day as a cause for celebration,” wrote advisors Tonya Anna, Sonya Hough and Curtis Zunigha in a joint statement to Billy Penn.
“While the ruling reinstates Columbus Day as an official city holiday, it does not erase Indigenous Peoples Day from Philadelphia’s history, community or identity,” they wrote.
The advisors see a path forward.
“We urge City Council to introduce and pass an ordinance that formally establishes Indigenous Peoples Day in Philadelphia on the second Monday of October each year,” reads their statement.
Anna, Hough and Zunigha are all members of the federally recognized Delaware Tribe of Indians, descendants of the Lenape, who were the Indigenous people of modern-day Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, Indigenous Peoples Day has proven popular. The 2021 celebration saw attendees comes from as far away as South Dakota and Canada to attend a ceremony at Penn Treaty Park.
Presidential proclamations during each year of the Biden administration have made Indigenous Peoples Day a federal holiday, but there is a question if that might end now under the Trump administration.
Juneteenth not affected, for now
In the 2021 executive order, Kenney also designated Juneteenth as a city holiday. However, the appeals court noted that this action differed from renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day, as Juneteenth had already been established as a state holiday in 2019 by former Governor Tom Wolf.
Even so, it might face other headwinds. On June 19 of this year, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to denounce “non-working holidays” in the U.S.
“Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote in a post.
It remains to be seen what happens next.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
