The statue stands in a small park near a strip of businesses owned primarily by blacks and Latinos. The 6-foot tall monument to Christopher Columbus was erected in Long Branch's Slocum Park in 1961, when the city was predominantly white. More than half a century later, the city has seen an influx of Latino immigrants, and at least one Hispanic group would like to see the statue moved to a different location.

"The man is not a national hero, and the statue is displayed in the center of a black and Hispanic neighborhood as if he did something really great," Walter Alomar, the president of the Organization for Culture of Hispanic Origins, said Friday. "This is not the true history."