Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, or the mothers, as Montgomery artist Michelle Browder calls them, will finally get some visible recognition on May 9, in the place where they unwittingly became a part of history.
The mothers are three of at least 12 women that historians say 19th century gynecologist J. Marion Sims operated on between 1845 and 1849; developing and perfecting his surgical techniques on an ailment that resulted from complications of severe childbirth.
As enslaved women, they had no freedom to decline these surgeries performed in Sims backyard clinic on South Perry Street. In absence of anesthesia, the women were held down and forcibly restrained as he carried out painful procedures on them. The medical discoveries and techniques Sims developed by experimenting on the bodies of these Black women would earn him the title, the “father of modern gynecology.”
Portion of Mothers of Gynecology art exhibit unveiled in Montgomery on Mother’s Day
On Mother s Day, artist Michelle Browder offered guests a sneak peek of the Mothers of Gynecology exhibit.
A 15-foot art installation to be erected at 17 Mildred St. in tribute to enslaved Black women who J. Marion Sims operated on between 1845 and 1849 in downtown Montgomery. Using the bodies of these women, Sims developed techniques and instruments that would innovate his field of medicine and earn him the title the father of modern gynecology.
Figures of Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey, three of the women operated on by Sims whose names have not been lost to time, were created by welding pieces of scrap metal together. Browder unveiled a portion of Betsey at a Sunday view and chew brunch where Tatyana Ali, known for role as Ashley Banks on the Fresh Prince of Belair joined guests, including Mayor Steven Reed, to honor the legacy of the women.
It’s hard to imagine today that only 60 years ago, boarding a Greyhound bus and taking a seat next to a passenger of another race was revolutionary; an act that could leave you flat out on the pavement or at risk of fatal harm.
But Montgomery’s Freedom Rides Museum is in the business of remembering.
For a decade, the museum has told the stories of more than 400 young men and women, Black and white the youngest of them 13 and the oldest 22 who boarded interstate buses headed south in the summer of 1961 with a strict purpose: to compel authorities to enforce Supreme Court decisions banning segregation on buses and in transportation facilities throughout the U.S.
In the summer of 1979, Stevie Wonder called Coretta Scott King to tell her about a dream he had.
“I said to her, you know, ‘I had a dream about this song. And I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. We were marching, too, with petition signs to make for Dr. King s birthday to become a national holiday,’ he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2011.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow was excited, but doubtful.
The song in question was Wonder’s 1980 release “Happy Birthday,” now lovingly known to African Americans as the Black version of the traditional song.