Lest We Forget: ‘Immortal’ Henrietta Lacks Honored With Statue in Virginia Hometown

This woman is due her flowers and more.

A statue of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose “immortal” cells were used for medical procedures without her permission, will be sculpted and installed in her hometown of Virginia in her honor.

According to CBS News, the bronze statue will replace a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Roanoke’s Henrietta Lacks Plaza, formerly known as Lee Plaza.

Attorney Ben Crump joined Lacks’ family on Monday for a press conference and unveiling of the sketch of the statue, which Black artist Bryce Cobbs drafted.

“Today, here in Roanoke, Virginia, at Lacks Plaza, we acknowledge that she was not only significant, she was literate and she is as relevant as any historic figure in the world today when you consider issues of genetic justice, reproductive rights and stem cell research,” Crump said during the press conference.

I joined Henrietta Lacks's family today in Roanoke, Virginia, to unveil a statue project in her honor. For far too long, America has used statues to commemorate men who divided our nation. It's past time to celebrate a woman who brings us together! pic.twitter.com/Clu3ZrPWMm

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) December 19, 2022

Roanoke Vice-Mayor Trish White-Boyd and the Harrison Museum of African American Culture fundraised $183,877 through the Roanoke Hidden Histories initiative to cover costs for the statue. The funds will also be used toward an additional project that includes a documentary highlighting the town’s history.

“This beautiful woman was born Aug. 1, 1920, right here in Roanoke, Virginia,” White-Boyd said at Monday’s press conference. “And we want to honor her, and to celebrate her.”

Gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones collected the woman’s cells following her death from cervical cancer at John Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Without consent, Dr. Howard studied and used Lacks’ cells, which he observed would double every 20 to 24 hours, different from other cancer patient cells.

“Having reviewed our interactions with Henrietta Lacks and with the Lacks family over more than 50 years, we found that Johns Hopkins could have – and should have – done more to inform and work with members of Henrietta Lacks’ family out of respect for them, their privacy and their personal interests,” John Hopkins Medicine wrote on its website.

As previously reported by BLACK ENTERPRISE, Lacks’ family filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Thermo Fisher Scientific, the medical company that benefitted from her cells. The company filed a motion to dismiss the suit, saying the matter was “decades too stale to proceed.”

Reportedly, the statue is scheduled to be completed in October 2023.