NEW YORK — New York City’s Public Design Commission has approved the removal of a controversial statue of a 19th century doctor who operated on enslaved women.
The commission on Monday voted 7-0 to accept a mayoral panel’s recommendation that a Central Park statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims be moved to the Brooklyn cemetery where he is buried.
Officials say the statue will be moved to Green-Wood Cemetery on Tuesday.
Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio created the task force following nationwide protests over confederate statues.
The panel recommended that most statues, accept for Sims, be kept where they are with historical markers added to give additional context.
Sims was known as the father of modern gynecology. But critics say his use of enslaved African-American women as experimental subjects was unethical.
