19th century Montgomery physician J. Marion Sims is often credited as the father of modern gynecology for developing new tools and techniques for women’s health that are still used today.
Often overlooked are the enslaved Black women he experimented on -- without consent or anesthesia -- to make those advancements.
A new monument unveiled Friday in Montgomery aims to tell the other side of the Sims story by honoring the “Mothers of Gynecology,” -- Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, three of eleven enslaved women who were the unwilling subjects of Sims’ experiments in the 1840s.
The statues stand almost 15 feet high and were welded together by Montgomery artist and activist Michelle Browder. They were unveiled Friday afternoon at a ceremony at the More Up Campus on Mildred Street.
“The endeavor is to change the narrative as it relates to the history and how it’s portrayed regarding Sims and the women that were used as experiments,” Browder said Sunday. “They’re not mentioned in any of the iconography or the information, the markers.”
The statues of Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey at the More Up Campus on Mildred Street in Montgomery. The campus is one block from the Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice.Jill Friedman
A statue of Sims still stands at the Alabama State House in Montgomery. A statue of him in New York’s Central Park was taken down in 2018 as criticism grew over the ethics of his medical advances. Sims purchased slaves for his experiments and did not use anesthesia because he believed that Black people could not feel pain in the same way whites could.
“No one talks about these women and their sacrifices and the experimentations that they suffered,” Browder said. “And so I feel that if you’re going to tell the truth about this history, we need to tell it all.”
The statues are now visible Montgomery, one block from the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, close to the Westcott Plantation where Anarcha was enslaved, and just five blocks from where Sims built his first hospital in 1840.
Browder said she made the Mothers statues from common metal items that were donated for the project, including tools, bicycle parts, and surgical and gynecological instruments.
Anarcha is the tallest of the three statues and stands at the front of the monument. Browder said records from the time show Anarcha was 17 years old and pregnant when Sims began his experiments on her.
The statues were designed and constructed by Montgomery, Ala. artist and advocate Michelle Browder using discarded items, including some of the medical devices invented after experiments on these women.Jill Friedman
The monument is the first phase of the More Up Campus, developed by Browder to teach more about the history of Montgomery. Since 2016, Browder has led tours in the Montgomery area highlighting lesser known stories of the Civil Rights movement.
Plans are for the More Up Campus, when complete, to include a travel center with 32 beds to accommodate travelers or activists and a museum highlighting the stories of Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey and others from Montgomery.
“There’s more to this history than Dr. King and Rosa Parks, and the Confederacy,” Browder said. “You know, there’s so much more to it. So that’s what we’re hoping to do.”
More information about the statues and the More Up Campus can be found at www.anarchalucybetsey.org.