Honoring the life of Mrs. Henrietta Lacks

This blog was written as part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Black Lives Matter program initiative. Learn  more about the program and corresponding events here.

A few years ago, while shelving books one day at West Boulevard Library, I stumbled across the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. While I was not familiar with Mrs. Lacks or her story, I was immediately drawn to the title. I checked it out and eagerly waited to dive into the text. But I soon realized that nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to read.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks details the story of Henrietta, a Black Southern tobacco farmer, whose poverty-stricken family rigorously worked the same land as their slave ancestors. She was a beautiful wife and loving mother that was dedicated to her family. In 1951, Lacks went to John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland with complaints of abdominal pain and feeling what she described as a “knot” in her womb. Over time her condition worsened and it was discovered that Henrietta had cervical cancer that metastasized to other parts of her body. Sadly, she succumbed to her illness on October 4, 1951 at age 31.

On one of her numerous visits to Johns Hopkins, the only hospital that would see Black patients at the time, a biopsy was performed on Mrs. Lacks. Without proper consent the cells retrieved from her biopsy were sent to Dr. George Gey, a top cancer and virus researcher, to be studied at his prominent tissue lab. Amazingly, unlike other cancer cells being researched Mrs. Lacks’ cells doubled every 24 hours. Her cells were nicknamed “HeLa” and were used to study the effects of drugs, toxins, and viruses on the growth of cancer cells and her cells were heavily utilized to learn more about how viruses worked and played a vital role in the polio vaccine.

But while all these monumental discoveries were taking place, Mrs. Lacks’ family was left in the dark. The findings made using Mrs. Lacks’ cells were extremely lucrative for the companies and individuals involved, while at the same time, Mrs. Lacks’ family was still poverty-stricken as researchers continued use of her cells until decades later.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot details this tragic but also inspiring story. Mrs. Lacks’ cells were vital to our current medical advancements, and stories like this are vital because they highlight the racial disparities faced by Black women in the healthcare system. Without this story being told, the institutional racism that many Black women currently face would continue to be overlooked.

In honor of Women’s History Month, I would encourage everyone to read this book and others that spotlight the little-known but globally impactful stories of women of color throughout history.

check out the book here     Check out the movie here

--

This blog was written by Cearra Harris, teen librarian at West Boulevard Library.