Henrietta Lacks, The Woman Who Sparked A Major Breakthrough In Medicine, Will Be Honored With Statue

Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cells helped create major medical breakthroughs when scientists used them for research without her permission in the 1950s, will be honored with a bronze statue in her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia.

During a ceremony on Monday, artist Bryce Cobbs shared a life-size preliminary drawing of the sculpture, scheduled for unveiling in October 2023.

“The fact that I’m involved in this project means the world,” Cobbs said at a press conference, according to ABC News. “I’m humbled to be a part of history in this way and just to be trusted with the task of making sure that I just captured Mrs. Henrietta Lacks the best way I could.”

Sculptor Larry Bechtel said that he will reference Cobbs’ drawing as he builds the statue, which will stand at Roanoke’s Henrietta Lacks Plaza, previously named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A Robert E. Lee statue formerly stood in downtown Roanoke and was toppled during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Lacks received treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. When she visited the hospital, one of the only medical centers accepting Black patients at the time, a gynecologist took a sample of her cells and sent it to a lab for research without her knowledge or consent.

Lacks died a few months later at age 31, but her HeLa cells were “immortal,” The Guardian reports. Researchers have used HeLa cells for decades for medical advancements that have saved millions of lives, including the polio and coronavirus vaccines as well as treatments cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s.

During Monday’s ceremony, Lacks’ family was joined by attorney Ben Crump.

“I just think it’s so fitting in the state of Virginia … where in the past we commemorated a lot of men with statues that divided us. Now here in Roanoke, Virginia, we will have a statue of a Black woman who brings us all together,” Crump said, according to ABC News.

Crump is representing the family in a lawsuit against biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific, which is accused of unjustly profiting from Lacks’ cells without permission.

According to ABC News, Lacks’ grandson, Ron Lacks, said the “historical moment” to honor his grandmother “has been a long time coming.”

“This is an honor and a privilege to be here in Roanoke with my father, Lawrence Lacks, Henrietta’s oldest and only living child,” he said at Monday’s ceremony.