Update 4/16/2018: New York City’s Public Design Commission voted to accept a mayoral panel’s recommendation to remove the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims for relocation to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, where Sims is buried, accompanied by signage with historical context.
Dr. Bernadith Russell, a gynecologist, emotionally embraced a friend as they watched the statue being removed. Russell said that when she was in medical school, Sims “was held up as the father of gynecology with no acknowledgement of the enslaved women he experimented on.”
The commission’s president, Signe Nielsen, wept on Monday when she called for the vote.
Michele Bogart, a former member of the design commission and an art history professor, was not pleased, having urged that the statue remain in Central Park, saying: “History matters. … Don’t run from it.”
Amrit Trewn, an activist who had advocated for demolition, was dissatisfied for different reasons, and said the decision to relocate the statue means “that this physical representation of anti-black violence will still stand and maintain its presence in the heart of yet another community of color.”
Original description
Black protesters demand removal of NYC statue. Dr. J. Marion Sims is the father of modern gynecology. He developed a life-saving surgery to reduce maternal mortality rates during childbirth, and also founded the first women’s hospital in 1855. However he performed surgery on black women without anesthesia, he administered opium after the surgeries.
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Dr. J. Marion Sims is often referred to as the “father of modern gynecology.”
Many would consider Sims to be a natural-born feminist for the strides that he made in women’s health care in the 19th century.
Sims developed a life-saving surgery to reduce maternal mortality rates during childbirth, and also founded the first women’s hospital in 1855.
Sims’ history, however, is not without controversy.
The physician, in his day, used enslaved African-American women against their will, and without pain medication, and used them as subjects of experiments to further his medical agenda.
Between the years of 1845 and 1849, it was confirmed that Sims experimented on 13 African-American slaves.
According to records kept by Sims, three of his most well-known patients were called Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy — all of whom suffered from vesicovaginal fistula, a major childbirth complication.
After 13 operations on patient Anarcha, she was considered “cured” and the operation deemed a success.
Despite the fact that anesthesia was available to surgical patients, Sims opted out of using the drugs and claimed that he was concerned by potential side effects of the new drug. The women were, however, administered opium after the surgeries.
Only after Sims’ success on his three main trial patients, Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy, did he attempt the procedure on white women, and did use anesthesia for the subsequent surgical procedures.
Mayor de Blasio has confirmed that the statue of Sims will be one of the monuments surveyed as the city conducts a 90-day review of “symbols of hate” that are situated on city property.
The Museum of the City of New York has voiced its support for the statue’s removal in a statement:
The Museum of the City of New York praises Mayor de Blasio for initiating a 90-day review of ‘symbols of hate on New York City property’ and we join the East Harlem community in asking that the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims be included in this review.
We are in agreement with City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, our local elected officials, Community Board 11, and other members of our community that there is a compelling argument to be made for the statue’s removal as a symbol of unethical racist medical practice.
The Museum of the City of New York supports the removal of the statue on this basis.
'Father Of Gynecology,' statue removed at NYC https://t.co/GEBMVpCDe9
— HYGO News (@HygoNews) April 18, 2018