CHICAGO — Italian Americans seeking the return of Chicago’s Christopher Columbus statue to its former pedestal in Little Italy allege that Mayor Lori Lightfoot interfered with a Park District contract to keep the monument on display “in perpetuity,” according to a recently filed complaint.
Lightfoot has been newly added as a defendant in a lawsuit the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans filed against the Chicago Park District last July asserting that the district violated a deal signed in 1973 to display the Columbus statue in Little Italy when they took down the statue in summer 2020.
Lightfoot has said she ordered the removal of Columbus statues after activists forcibly attempted to remove the prominent statue of Columbus in Grant Park, leading to violent clashes between police and protesters.
