As Americans continue to debate and grapple with their country's past, the discussion surrounding the appropriateness of statues honoring certain historical figures rages on. In the southern part of the country, that discussion has mostly centered around former members of the Confederacy such as Gen. Robert E. Lee. Further north, and especially here in Ohio, it has greatly focused on one man: Christopher Columbus.

The explorer's 15th century-voyage to the New World remains memorialized throughout the U.S. with its own holiday, and many of Italian descent see him as a cultural icon. However, others have presented evidence of Columbus' brutal treatment of the indigenous population of the Americas, his participation in the early slave trade, and the fact that he never actually set foot in what is now the modern-day United States.