1 year ago
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Nearly a century after her birth, Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose name became internationally synonymous with cancer research via her “immortal” HeLa cells, will be immortalized in bronze in Virginia next year.
Lacks, whose cells were unethically taken from her without her permission after her death in 1951 and used for decades without her consent, will have a life-sized statue erected in her honor in her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. The statue will replace a monument to racist slaver and Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
“This means a lot to my family,” Ron Lacks, Lacks’ grandson, said during Monday’s announcement ceremony. “This historical moment, occasion, has been a long time coming,” said Ron Lacks, whose father, Lawrence Lacks, is Henrietta’s oldest and only living child.
