Alabama man jailed for getting ketchup on statue of doctor who experimented on enslaved women

Alabama state capitol.
(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

A 74-year-old Alabama man named Jon Broadway was arrested, charged with misdemeanor criminal tampering, and jailed for about eight hours after he got ketchup on a statue while conducting an anti-racism demonstration.

The statue at the Alabama State Capitol depicts Dr. J. Marion Sims, who is known as the father of modern gynecology. Sims developed his techniques by practicing on enslaved black women, testing instruments and conducting surgeries without anesthesia and possibly without their consent. One woman, Anarcha, was subjected to 30 surgeries.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.