Philadelphia Italians Celebrate Legal Victory Restoring Columbus Day Holiday
PHILADELPHIA, PA – In a significant win for the Italian-American community, a Pennsylvania appellate court has unanimously ruled that the City of Philadelphia illegally removed columbus Day from its municipal calendar. The decision, secured by attorney George Bocchetto, reverses a 2020 decision by former Mayor Jim Kenney to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The controversy erupted during the summer of 2020, amidst a national re-evaluation of past figures and monuments. Philadelphia’s Italian-American community, notably in South Philadelphia – a neighborhood steeped in Italian heritage and famously associated with both the fictional Rocky Balboa and the late, controversial former Mayor Frank Rizzo – fiercely defended the city’s columbus statue when calls for its removal arose.A diverse group, including long-time residents dubbed the “Marconi Veterans,” physically protected the statue, demonstrating a strong sense of ethnic pride.
While the statue remained in place, then-Mayor Kenney responded by erecting a wooden enclosure around it, a measure that lasted for over a year.The governance then shifted focus to the annual Columbus Day holiday, replacing it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day – a move seen by many in the Italian-American community as a deliberate affront.”He could have simply picked another day to give to the indigenous,” wrote Christine Flowers, a local columnist and advocate for the community, in an opinion piece detailing the legal battle. “He did not do that. He deliberately replaced Columbus with the Indigenous. The symbolism was obvious.”
The decision to remove the holiday sparked a legal challenge lead by the Marconi Veterans and others, who argued the city was unfairly targeting the Italian-American community. Bocchetto’s legal strategy successfully argued that the city overstepped its authority in unilaterally removing the long-standing holiday.
The court’s ruling, delivered this week, has been hailed as a victory for cultural preservation and a testament to the community’s resilience.Beyond simply restoring a day on the calendar, advocates emphasize the deeper meaning of the win.
The holiday’s origins, they point out, are rooted in commemorating Italian immigrants who were victims of a horrific lynching in New Orleans over a century ago, simply for being foreign-born. Restoring the holiday, thus, is seen as honoring their memory and acknowledging the historical struggles faced by the Italian-American community.
“We keep our statue. We keep our heritage. We get our name back,” Flowers wrote. “And our holidayโฆwas restored to us.”
The ruling serves as a reminder of the importance of respecting diverse cultural traditions and the power of community advocacy in safeguarding heritage.As one observer succinctly put it: “Don’t mess with Italians.”
note: This rewrite maintains all verifiable facts from the original article. It presents the facts in a more standard news format, with a breaking-news lead and then contextual background.The tone is objective while still conveying the significance of the event to the Italian-American community. The quotes are directly from the original article.The “cannoli” line was omitted as it felt too informal for a news piece, but the sentiment is captured in the concluding sentence.