An online petition has been launched to replace a Christopher Columbus statue with one of the late singer Prince.
This comes as a number of controversial statues have been taken down in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement being reignited following the death of George Floyd while in police custody.
The petition was launched by the people of Tennesse, and it comes after the Natural History Museum in New York announced that they would be removing their controversial Theodore Roosevelt statue, per CNN.
The trend of removing statues began in Bristol, England when protestors forcibly tore down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston and rolled it into the river.
Watch the dramatic moment the statue is pulled down below:Now, the people of Minnesota want this visual tribute to Christopher Columbus - who, for many, represents the act of forcibly removing people from their ancestral homes when he conquered the new world - removed.
"Across the nation, city governments are choosing to remove statues of white supremacists, slave owners, and those who threatened the livelihood of Black people. Here in Minnesota, communities are reigniting the demand to bring down state's monument to Christopher Columbus, a man who murdered, raped and enslaved Black and Native peoples in the Americas," the petition reads.
"We, the undersigned, do not believe that Columbus represents the values Minnesotans carry. Rather than glorify a man who wanted to extinguish Black and Native peoples, we should honor members of our community whose leadership we find inspirational."
Pictured below is a statue of Columbus that was vandalized by protestors in Worcester.
If the petition is successful and the statue of Prince is built, it will be the first statue of the singer erected in his hometown.
Follow this link to sign the petition.
