MASA (An unfortunate acronym/name in Alabama, no?) grew out of a December 1847 meeting of Alabama physicians aimed at
addressing concerns about a state medical licensure law passed in 1823.
Alabama's licensing standards were very lax, and many physicians were
concerned about the level of skill possessed by some licensed doctors in
the state. In December 1846 members of the Alabama Medical Society
(AMS), a local Selma
organization, met and decided to call a statewide meeting of doctors.
AMS secretary Dr. Albert Gallatin Mabry sent a letter to the president
of the Mobile Medical Society to determine its members' interest in such
a meeting. Mabry called for the creation of a state medical society,
modeled on those in Mississippi and Virginia, that could develop and
enforce a code of ethics and work to improve medical education in the
state. He also stressed the need for mental health facilities, which
were virtually nonexistent in Alabama at the time. In response, 21
physicians met on December 1, 1847, at the Waverly House in Mobile.
This original incarnation of MASA met first in Selma in 1848 and in other cities in subsequent years. Membership never topped 150, and bad business decisions led to its bankruptcy in 1855. The organization remained inactive until 1868, when a group of physicians met in Selma to restructure it. By 1893, its initial membership of 20 had increased to more than 1,000.
The Association installed a statue of Dr. Marion Sims on the capitol grounds, on the right side of the front steps, in 1938. The statue later became the site of protests because Sims operated on enslaved women without anesthesia, believing they did not feel pain as white women did.
A similar statue of Sims was installed in the 1890's in New York City, but was taken down in 2018.
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