Henrietta Lacks being honored with bronze statue

A bronze statue in honor of 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 erected in her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia.
On Monday, artist Bryce Cobbs shared a life-size preliminary drawing of the sculpture scheduled for unveiling in October 2023 during a ceremony.
“This project means the world to me,” Cobbs said at a press conference, according to ABC News. I’m honored to be a part of history by documenting the life of Mrs. Henrietta Lacks.
Sculptor Larry Bechtel 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 that formerly stood in downtown Roanoke was toppled during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
In 1951, Lacks received treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A gynecologist at the hospital, one of the few medical centers that would accept Black patients at the time, took a sample of her cells without her knowledge or consent and sent it to a lab for research.
“Lacks died a few months later at age 31, but her HeLa cells were incredibly ‘immortal,'” The Guardian reports, according to The Washington Post. HeLa cells have been used by researchers for decades to save millions of lives through medical advancements such as polio and coronavirus vaccines and in treating cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s.
Attorney Ben Crump joined Lacks’ family during Monday’s ceremony.
“I think it’s so fitting that in the state of Virginia, where we’ve commemorated a lot of men with statues in the past, we’re now divided.” “Now here in Roanoke, Virginia, we will have a statue of a Black woman who brings us all together,” Crump said.
The family of Lacks is suing biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific for profiting from Lacks’ cells without permission, with Crump representing the family.
Ron Lacks, grandson of Henrietta Lacks, said that honoring his grandmother with a “historical moment” is something that should have happened a long time ago.
“It 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.