Artist Michelle Browder Is Soon to Open A Museum and Clinic in Honor of The "Mothers of Gynecology"

Photo: Andi Rice for The Washington Post (Getty Images) — Photo by Andi rice for The Washington Post (Getty Images).

After unveiling her groundbreaking monument last Mother’s Day, artist Michelle Browder is expanding upon her work around the “Mothers of Gynecology,” with the opening of a museum and clinic built in their honor.

At 18 years old as a student in Atlanta, Browder came across a 1952 painting of J. Marion Sims, a man considered to be the “Father of Gynecology” — given this moniker for the horrendous experiments he conducted on Black women to support his research. Browder discovered through her own research that Sims’ three female subjects in the painting were Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey.

“They were girls, just a year maybe younger than me at the time,” said Browder, 51, of the three women, PEOPLE reports. “The look on their faces, I was troubled so bad.”

She later dubbed the women as the “Mothers of Gynecology.”

“It was a crime against humanity,” the Alabama native said of Sims’ experiments on his patients. “Often these girls would have to hold each other down. Lucy had 12 surgeries and it nearly killed her — there are reports of her screaming in pain.”

Sims believed that Black people didn’t feel pain and therefore conducted his experiments without anesthesia. Recent studies show that many doctors and medical students still believe this sentiment.

Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey all served as inspiration for Browder (who is a trained welder) to construct the “Mothers of Gynecology” monument that now stands in Montgomery, Alabama. This exhibit was created in response to Sims’s statue, which still stands in front state capitol building. Another statue of Sims was removed in 2018 that once stood in New York City’s Central Park.

“When I’d see that statue of Sims, I was infuriated,” said Browder. “How can this one person be elevated and amplified and heralded as the father of modern gynecology but there’s no mention of these enslaved women, girls that were raped and trafficked? I said, ‘I’m going to change that. I’m going to erect a monument’.”

After experiencing traumatic childbirths, the plantation owners offered the three young women to Sims.

“J. Marion Sims represents so much more than just a medical practitioner that believed that Black folks had a high tolerance for pain, but he also represents systemic racism, whether it’s in health care, whether it’s in government,” Browder, told the Montgomery Advertiser.

Browder has opened the Mothers of Gynecology Health and Wellness Clinic worth $5.5 million to commemorate the sacrifices of these women. PEOPLE reports that the space will house a museum to educate visitors about mothers and also provide training for doulas, midwives, and doulas.

“It’s a museum that teaches the history of gynecology but also has a primary care unit upstairs where medical students from around this country can come,” Browder told the Advertiser. “If there are some uninsured women that need support, we’re going to be able to give them that.”

Browder shares with us that the building will have a mural depicting Sims naked on an exam table. The mural will be surrounded by empowered renderings Betsey, Lucy, Anarcha. The groundbreaking for the museum and clinic will take place during Mother’s Day, 2023.