The immortal Henrietta Pleasant was born on August 1, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia.  After the death of her mother, she moved to Clover, Virginia to live with her paternal grandfather.  She married David “Day” Lacks in 1941, and the couple had 5 children.  They moved to 713 New Pittsburg Avenue in Turner Station, Maryland in search of economic security in the booming factory of Bethlehem Steel.  In 1951, Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment for an unknown illness—she had discovered “a knot” in her abdomen (Rebecca Skloot 14).  After several hospital visits, she died of cervical cancer on October 4, 1951 at the age of 31 years.

According to Rebecca Skloot, two days after her death, a lab attendant discovered that the HeLa cells (named for the first two letters of her first and last names) were growing.  Led by Dr. George Gey, this marked the first instance of growth of human cells outside the body.  The HeLa cells would go on to transform modern medicine.  One of the more immediate results was the development of the Polio vaccine.  To date, the “Easy-to-grow ‘HeLa’ cells have been used in more than 76,000 studies” (“Privacy Pact” 61).

Yet, it took some twenty-five years before the Lacks family received any knowledge of the immortal contribution their beloved wife and mother was making.  According to Rebecca Skloot, David Lacks, Sr., received a call from a Dr. Susan Hsu, a researcher who informed him that a scientific team at the Johns Hopkins had been doing research on her cells for the last 25 years.  To date, the Lacks family has received no compensation for the contribution their mother, grandmother, and great grandmother made to modern medicine.  The Henrietta Lacks story raises ethical, racial, and socio-economic issues related to the medical industrial complex.

Evergreen School District is committed to honoring the Legacy of Henrietta Lacks and is proud to be the first public institution named after her in 2013.  The Evergreen School Board and a group of students chose the name Henrietta Lacks after a student on the committee had read the book, 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' and was struck by the powerful nature the story of Henrietta and its implications for Science and Ethics.  HeLa continues to honor Henrietta and live her story by educating all students at HeLa of her story, reading the text and studying the historical impact that she and her cells have had on our world.