Stack withdraws support of Columbus Day name change

A previous version of this story said SaveJersey.com first reported the bill’s existence. That is incorrect. It was first reported by Politico New Jersey.

State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) has dropped his sponsorship of a bill  to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

Stack told the Globe that he has reconsidered his position.

The bill, which was first reported by Politico New Jersey, is likely to face some opposition.

While some states have renamed Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples’ Day, New Jersey, which has a large population of Italian Americans, has only seen such renamings in a handful of municipalities.

To many New Jerseyans of Italian descent, Columbus Day remains a celebration of their heritage.

But to others believe the holiday commemorates a mass murderer.

While scholars differ on some details, Columbus’s expeditions are credited with killing hundreds of thousands of Taíno people indigenous to the region, either through transmission of diseases endemic to Europe, like smallpox and malaria, or through enslavement and the hard labor that followed.

Gov. Phil Murphy in June suggested he would be on board with measures recognizing the full breadth of Columbus’s legacy, though it’s not clear whether he would support nixing the explorer’s holiday altogether.

“I think we have to acknowledge that and find a way to be able to both celebrate Italian American heritage on the one hand but also remove symbols that offend people,” Murphy said at the time, responding to a question about statues of Columbus.