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Controversial Statue Is Relocated to Brooklyn

The controversial statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims have been moved to his gravesite at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery

For 84 years, the monument of Dr. J. Marion Sims stood just outside of Central Park on Fifth Avenue. But this morning, a small crowd gathered to watch the statue's removal. It was loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck, and sent to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where Sims was buried in 1883.

Sims is widely known as "the father of gynecology," and he gained renown for his pioneering medical work, and for establishing the first women's hospital in the United States. In recent years, however, Sims has become the subject of controversy, due to the methods he utilized to achieve the surgical breakthroughs that brought him fame: namely, conducting many of his experiments on enslaved black women, without anesthesia.

For about a decade, critics have called for the Central Park statue to be removed or relocated. When Mayor Bill de Blasio convened a group to survey statues on city property that he called "symbols of hate," Sims was on the list. When the commission released a report of its recommendations in January, the Sims monument was the only one singled out for removal.

"Moving it to this private site where people can still see it out in Brooklyn is the right thing to do," said Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner for the city's Department of Cultural Affair, which is handling the relocation.

In a statement, the Parks Department said it will commission a new monument for the now-vacant space once occupied by Sims. NYU historian Jennifer Morgan, who was among the crowd watching the statue's removal, said it should be replaced by a monument dedicated to Lucy, Betsey and Anarcha—enslaved women who Sims used as both subjects and assistants.

"He would operate on one woman with the help of the other. And then once that woman had healed, she would then be forced to help him perform these surgeries," Morgan said.

Morgan said honoring these three women would go a little ways toward making sure they are remembered for their contributions and sacrifices to medicine.