USC board asks Legislature to rename building named after J. Marion Sims

The University of South Carolina’s board of trustees will ask lawmakers to approve a name change for a women’s dorm building named after J. Marion Sims, a man who performed medical experiments on enslaved women.

The decision follows the death of George Floyd and the growing nationwide movement against symbols of racism and segregation.

“This is an important effort to address (institutional) racism that has existed within the history of our university, and I applaud the board’s decision to act on this,” USC President Robert Caslen said in a statement.

Though the board seeks a name change on the Sims building, trustees did not discuss a name change for the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. Calls to rename the recreation center from students, alumni and USC’s most decorated athletes were far louder than those to rename the Sims building.

According to SC’s Heritage Act, only the state legislature can rename historical monuments and buildings, and they must do so by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. The Heritage Act is the reason the university’s board of trustees cannot simply vote to rename a building on its own authority.

During the Friday meeting, USC Student Body President Issy Rushton read a letter from student leaders calling for mandatory classes that teach about marginalized communities, the renaming of buildings, increasing diversity among professors and top administrators and expanding outreach to in-state students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Access is more than the ability to enter a room,” Rushton said. “People need to feel welcomed.”

The letter, read by Rushton, specifically called for the renaming of Thomas Cooper Library, which is named for a former USC president who owned slaves.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Rushton said. “This institution will not be judged by how it treats its general population. It will be judged by how it treats its most marginalized citizens.”

Caslen said in a statement he is aware students, faculty and staff want to see more buildings to change, and he asked for their patience as a task force investigates the history of every building on campus.

“I understand this action alone will not satisfy all members of our community calling for greater change, but I am confident the President’s Commission on Historical Building Naming will continue with their duties to research the history of each building, to share that history, and to propose ways the university should respond,” Caslen said in the statement.

The Sims building, a women’s dorm titled Sims at Women’s Quad, is named after J. Marion Sims, a native South Carolinian who is considered the father of modern gynecology. That legacy, however, was built on the backs of non-consenting slaves, according to medical and ethical journals.

“The enslaved women were not asked if they would agree to such an operation as they were totally without any claims to decision-making about their bodies or any other aspect of their lives,” according to a 1993 article in the Journal of Medical Ethics. “Permission was obtained from their masters. They were in no way volunteers for Dr. Sims’s research.”

While the ethical standards of the mid-1800s are certainly different than they are today, the 1993 article cites reports from Sims’ own time that his experimentation — excruciating procedures done without anesthesia — was scandalous enough that it began to tarnish his reputation even while he was still alive, according to the article.

A more recent 2010 article from Albany Medical College’s Department of Surgery, notes the importance of Sims’ medical progress but maintains that the harm done to nonconsenting enslaved women should not be overlooked.

“As opposed to championing women’s health, Sims’ legacy should be associated with surgical experimentation on vulnerable populations,” the 2010 article said.

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 2:16 PM.