Leftists want to rewrite American history and have renewed calls to eliminate Columbus Day.

A movement to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day has gained momentum in liberal parts of the U.S., with Los Angeles in August becoming the biggest city yet to decide to stop honoring the Italian explorer.

But there's one group that's organizing to fight back: Italian-Americans.

The gesture to recognize indigenous people rather than the man who opened the Americas to European exploration has prompted howls of outrage from some Italian-American groups, who say eliminating their festival of ethnic pride is culturally insensitive and historically inaccurate.

"We had a very difficult time in this country for well over a hundred years," said Basil Russo, president of the Order Italian Sons and Daughters of America. "Columbus Day is a day that we've chosen to celebrate who we are. And we're entitled to do that just as they are entitled to celebrate who they are."

The debate over Columbus' historical legacy is an old one, but it became emotionally charged after a similar debate in the South over monuments to Confederate generals flared into deadly violence in August at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In Akron, Ohio, a September vote over whether to dump Columbus opened a racial rift on the city council that was so heated conflict mediators were brought in to sooth tensions.

In New York, where 35,000 people marched in Monday's Columbus Day parade, vandals last month doused the hands of a Christopher Columbus statue in blood-red paint and scrawled the words "hate will not be tolerated." Activists demanded the city to change the parade's name are expected to hold an angry demonstration.

On Sunday, three demonstrators interrupted a wreath-laying ceremony at the Columbus statue in Columbus Circle. Two dressed in fake chains. One wore a hooded white sheet. Police said one person was arrested.