Wombs of Wisdom

Midwives Archives and Equity Project

Wombs of Wisdom is a public history and preservation project that honors the legacy of Black midwives and community-based maternal care in Mississippi. Led by Scott Ford Houses, Inc. in partnership with Monument Lab and the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, the project reimagines what a monument can be by centering care, memory, and Black women’s knowledge.

Rather than a single object, Wombs of Wisdom is a living monument made up of gatherings, preserved spaces, and a permanent museum exhibit.

Community Gatherings & Story Circles

The project includes a series of community gatherings and story circles that bring together elders, families, birth workers, historians, artists, and students. These events create space for sharing memories of granny midwives, maternal care, and community health traditions across Mississippi.

Through storytelling and dialogue, the gatherings document lived experience while affirming oral history as a vital form of knowledge and remembrance.

Preserving the Scott Ford Houses

Wombs of Wisdom is grounded in the continued preservation of the Scott Ford Houses, one of the few known historic sites in the United States directly connected to an African American midwife. Built in the 1890s by Mary Green Scott and later home to her daughter Virginia Scott Ford, a community midwife, the houses are interpreted as places of care, birth, and women’s labor.

Preservation work centers the houses not only as historic structures, but as sites where community health and knowledge were sustained across generations.

Permanent Exhibit at the Smith Robertson Museum

The project culminates in a permanent exhibit at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, Mississippi’s first museum dedicated to African American history. Drawing on oral histories, artifacts, and community memory, the exhibit tells the story of Black midwives as foundational figures in Mississippi’s past and present. The exhibit places the story of the midwives within the context of both Mississippi's African American history and Jackson's local history of Farish Street.

The exhibit challenges traditional monuments by elevating everyday labor, collective care, and women’s wisdom as worthy of permanent public recognition.

About The Work

Reimagining Monuments

As a Monument Lab project, Wombs of Wisdom seeks to expand the idea of monuments. Here, the monument is a process: community gatherings, preserved homes, and a museum space that invites learning, reflection, and healing.

Project team leads:

Professor Detrice Roberts

Dr. Brittany Myburgh

Monica Lopez