NYC Museum (finally) backs call to take down Harlem monument to doctor who experimented on enslaved women

ARTNET NEWS
By Terence Trouillot

The J. Marion Sims statue stands near the corner of 5th Avenue and 103rd Street on August 22, 2017 in New York. The Black Youth Project 100, an activist group founded in 2013, is calling for the removal of the J. Marion Sims statue. (Photo: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images.)

NEW YORK---In a statement yesterday, the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) took a stand: It is now advocating for the removal of a much-protested statue of 19th-century physician J. Marion Sims, located in East Harlem on 103 Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Sims statue, which sits just a stone’s throw away from the MCNY across Fifth Avenue, represents Dr. James Marion Sims (1813–1883), regarded as the father of gynecology. His legacy, however, rests on his grossly unethical medical practices, performing countless experimental surgeries between 1845 to 1849 on black female slaves without their consent. [More]