Book Discussion - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Join us for a 3-part discussion of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. 

In 1950, Henrietta Lacks, entered the colored ward of The Johns Hopkins Hospital to begin treatment for an extremely aggressive strain of cervical cancer. As she lay on the operating table, a sample of her cancerous cervical tissue was taken without her knowledge or consent. Thirty-seven years after Henrietta’s death, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Skloot was a high school student sitting in a biology class when her instructor mentioned that HeLa, the first immortal human cell line ever grown in culture, had been taken from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her investigation of the true story behind HeLa eventually led her to form significant––and in some cases, life changing––relationships with the surviving members of the Lacks family, especially Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah. In telling Henrietta’s story, Skloot draws from primary sources and personal interviews to provide insightful narrative accounts of Henrietta’s childhood, young adulthood, diagnosis, illness, and tragic death. She also explores the birth and life of the immortal cell line HeLa, and shows how research involving HeLa has changed the landscape of medical research, leading to not only scientific and medical breakthroughs, but also new and evolving policies concerning the rights of patients and research subjects.

Resources shared in the Chat box

• Henrietta Lacks (HeLa): The Mother of Modern Medicine

• HeLa Cells: A Lasting Contribution to Biomedical Research

• Analyzing the Legacy of Henrietta Lacks presentation

• The Virus behind the Cancer

• Wealthy funder pays reparations for use of HeLa cells

• ACD HeLa Genome Data Access Working Group

  • Roster of the group including the Lacks family representatives

    • David Lacks, Jr.

    • Representative, Henrietta Lacks Family

    • Baltimore, MD

    • Jeri Lacks-Whye

    • Representative, Henrietta Lacks Family

    • Baltimore, MD

    • Veronica Spencer

    • Representative, Henrietta Lacks Family

    • Baltimore, MD

Words of Wisdom (WOW) Series

In honor of Black History Month and as part of MLA Experience,  join AAMLA for our Words of Wisdom series. This series will feature conversations with seasoned African American Librarians to honor the historical footprint of AAMLA and the African American community.