For about a month every November, a yellow blindfold is placed over the eyes of the bronze Prospector Pete statue that sits prominently on the Cal State Long Beach campus
It's a political act designed to make clear that the campus is not blind to the brutality inflicted on thousands of indigenous Americans during the California gold rush
But in the end, that wasn't enough. As part of a sweeping reappraisal of how to mark California history that is underway across the state, top administrators said they would officially retire the mascot and move the statue to a less prominent place on campus, a soon-to-be-built alumni center
Advertisement The 1849 gold rush marked the birth of modern California, and that's how "the 49ers" became Cal State Long Beach's symbol when the university opened a century later
But since then, there has been much more focus on the ugly side of the era, including the cruel discrimination and violence against California's non-white population
At first, there was a push to simply tell this side of history. But increasingly, some are advocating for the removal of public symbols of California's ugly past
Some cities have even gone so far as to rename holidays. Los Angeles and Berkeley replaced today's Columbus Day on their calendars with Indigenous Peoples Day
The L.A. City Council in 2017 voted to reimagine the holiday, which is celebrated on the second Monday in October and marks the arrival of Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus in the Americas
The council sided with activists who view the explorer as a symbol of genocide for Native Americans
The widespread changes have sparked a debate over the difference between understanding the past and celebrating it
Stanford University last month decided to rename three campus references to Father Junipero Serra, who founded the California mission system in the 1700s and whose legacy came under fire for the missions' treatment of Native Americans
The San Francisco Board of Appeals also recently decided to remove the longstanding "Early Days" statue outside City Hall, a move that Native American activists had been demanding for decades
Native Americans have argued that the statue symbolizes and celebrates the oppression and conquest of indigenous people
The statue, erected in 1894, depicts a Native American lying at the feet of a missionary as a vaquero stands nearby in triumph
While the artwork represents a common view of the time period in the 19th century, many say it is no longer appropriate to enshrine the monument as an accurate portrayal of history
Cal State Long Beach mascot Prospector Pete fires up the crowd before a game at the Pyramid in 2011
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) Activists have cheered these and other actions, arguing that the statues are offensive symbols and don't deserve their prominent placement
"As an institution dedicated to inclusivity, it is really important to us to have a mascot that empowers students," said Leen Almahdi, a junior at Cal State Long Beach
"Prospectors had a direct link to the murder of indigenous people. It's important for us to recognize this reality can make some communities uncomfortable
" But USC history professor William Deverell said he's wary of the idea that commemorative statues should be hidden away to avoid being discussed
Instead, he argued, they should be a catalyst for conversation about the past, why the item was memorialized and how society interprets history today
People's views of the past are constantly in flux and change not only as additional information is discovered, but also as more diverse experiences are shared, he said
"We're connected to the past whether we like it or not, and that strand is really fragile and fascinating," Deverell said
"It should be scrutinized and put on the scales of justice." And it's tricky to determine when to draw the line
After Stanford decided to remove Serra's name from its campus buildings, some questioned when the university would address its own namesake, Leland Stanford
The railroad baron and former California governor used Chinese labor to help build the transcontinental railroad but spouted virulently anti-Asian rhetoric and other racist views
Stanford infamously said of Asian populations in 1862 that the "presence of numbers among us of a degraded and distinct people must exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race
" California history is filled with other moments of cruelty that were accepted during the period but in retrospect have been met with shame and regret
Advertisement The internment of thousands of Japanese Americans in isolated camps in California and several other states during World War II was widely praised by notable public figures, including then-California Atty
Gen. Earl Warren. Warren went on to become chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and in 1954 helped secure a unanimous verdict in the case of Brown vs
Board of Education of Topeka, which ruled that racial segregation in the public school system was unconstitutional
But Japanese American internment remained as a blemish on his record, despite his work expanding civil liberties while on the bench, according to historians
Warren even admitted his own guilt about the issue in his memoirs, published posthumously, in which he expressed deep regret about advocating for the removal order
We're connected to the past . and that strand is really fragile and fascinating
It should be scrutinized and put on the scales of justice. William Deverell, USC professor of history Share quote & link California also has passed laws rooted in racism that have targeted non-white people
The state passed a law in 1909 authorizing the sterilization of anyone committed to a state institution
It remained on the books until 1979. Eugenics-based sterilization programs, which took away the reproductive abilities of about 20,000 people in California, disproportionately targeted Mexican immigrants and were deeply rooted in stereotypes
Supporters of the eugenics campaign believed that people they deemed genetically "unfit" shouldn't be allowed to reproduce, according to historians
The ugliness of some of the state's past can be difficult to wash away, some say, especially for groups that were caught in the middle of oppressive situations
"The past has not been buried," Deverell said. "I have a professional obligation to say the past is standing right at our shoulder
It still exerts all this power." It's a conflict that's playing out across the United States, as dozens of monuments that activists say promote a time when the oppression of women and minorities was rampant are removed from public spaces
Leaders and historians are left to ponder how the past should be preserved without adding fuel to hate groups that sometimes use the symbols as a source of power
"We're at a moment when a lot of people feel particularly under threat, given the political climate," said Michelle Brock, associate professor of history at Washington and Lee University in Virginia
"The country is being led by individuals that have an unyielding nostalgia to an idealized version of the past where white men were in power
" A white nationalist rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 brought renewed attention to many Confederate monuments depicting generals, soldiers and battles that had been erected around the country when Jim Crow laws thrived in the South
Many Southern states have recently worked to remove the statues, and the effort has reached as far as California, forcing the state to confront its own troubling history, some of which relates to the mass killing of Native Americans
Advertisement There also has been a push to remove the names of Confederate sympathizers — many of whom migrated west after the Civil War — and markers from public spaces in California
In 2017, a longstanding monument in the Confederate section of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where at least 37 Confederate veterans and their families are buried, was removed amid public outcry and threats of vandalism
Brock said universities and municipalities run the risk of alienating people by keeping offensive depictions of the past in prominent places in the name of history
"No one ever learns history from a statue that is set up to memorialize something," she said
"It's about projecting visions of the present and future, and often that's whitewashed or inaccurate
Preserving history is a fundamentally different thing." Monuments often reveal more about the era in which they were erected than they do about the time period they're depicting, Deverell said, adding that every community should decide for itself what's appropriate to commemorate
The bronze Prospector Pete statue was erected in 1967. It sits on the south side of campus, near the Psychology and Liberal Arts buildings
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) The Prospector Pete statue, formally named "The Forty-Niner Man," was unveiled at Cal State Long Beach in 1967
The bronze statue, modeled after a student, evolved from the creation of the campus in 1949 and founding President Pete Peterson's reference to having "struck the gold of education" by establishing the college
Cal State Long Beach alumnus Garland Holt was on the student senate when the idea for a statue came before the body for approval
He said the original intent behind the piece was to honor the students at the college at the time, many of whom were first-generation college attendees and pioneers in their own right
Holt said he's fine with retiring the mascot in favor of something new, but hiding the statue in a space dedicated to alumni is a mistake and insulting to former students
"I do not like the new term 'The Beach' because it is a marketing tool that seems to say Long Beach State is a party school
It isn't," he said. "It is a place where students who often could not gain the gold of an education can better themselves and help the world
That is what the prospector means to us." For current students, a population that is significantly more diverse than it was in the 1960s, the art piece no longer was serving its purpose of bringing people together
"The past is etched on every aspect of the American landscape," Brock said. "I think it's fair to ask questions about how that past is presented and celebrated
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