For 50 years, Columbus Day has been a national holiday, more or less celebrating Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the New World. Since then, more and more Americans are choosing, instead, to observe the holiday as Indigenous People's Day, acknowledging the native peoples whom Europeans displaced and critiquing their treatment by colonizers and by citizens and governments in the United States. 

Those clashing historical narratives speak of deep division among Americans today. Some resolution to the controversy over Columbus Day, at least, might be found in the origin of that holiday long before 1971, but nearly 130 years ago in New Orleans. 

Olivia Crisafi, '22, is a senior at The Governor's Academy from Newbury, MA. Drawn to controversial issues, she is passionate about public policy and engineering and spends her free time running, building robots and fundraising for her chosen social causes. Her investigation of Columbus Day, for her junior-year AP US History class, sparked her interest in historical research, which she pursued as an intern at the MOON this past summer, and plans to continue in college. 

Register here. (A Zoom link will be sent closer to the presentation. Donations encouraged, but not required.)