Henritta Lacks
African American History
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Throughout history both African Americans and women had to fight to be treated not only equally but also even humanely. African Americans have endured being enslaved by people of white color, beaten hung, even shot. You would assume slavery to any human would be bad enough, but no it wasn’t. Women were discriminated against, all races. Women weren’t allowed to vote, participate in sports and sometimes not live independently. So what happens to a female who happened to be African American? You can only assume anything but good, primary example Henrietta Lacks. “Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa”. She struggled financially as a southern tobacco farmer that labored the same land as her ancestors who were slaves, nonetheless her cells which were used while not having her consent—turned into one of significant tool of medicine in that time. “The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.” If one gathered all of the “HeLa” cells ever developed on a scale, the cells would weigh over “50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings”. Henrietta Lacks cells became dynamic for budding a preventative treatment for polio; discovered enigmas of cancer, and the atom bomb’s effects; which assisted in leading us to important developments such as in vitro conception, replication (cloning), and gene planning; and have been marketed by the highest numbers imaginable.
However Henrietta Lacks continues essentially to be unknown, submerged under the earth in an unmarked grave. Currently, writer Rebecca Skloot brings readers on a voyage, “from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Throughout history both African Americans and women had to fight to be treated not only equally but also even humanely. African Americans have endured being enslaved by people of white color, beaten hung, even shot. You would assume slavery to any human would be bad enough, but no it wasn’t. Women were discriminated against, all races. Women weren’t allowed to vote, participate in sports and sometimes not live independently. So what happens to a female who happened to be African American? You can only assume anything but good, primary example Henrietta Lacks. “Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa”. She struggled financially as a southern tobacco farmer that labored the same land as her ancestors who were slaves, nonetheless her cells which were used while not having her consent—turned into one of significant tool of medicine in that time. “The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.” If one gathered all of the “HeLa” cells ever developed on a scale, the cells would weigh over “50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings”. Henrietta Lacks cells became dynamic for budding a preventative treatment for polio; discovered enigmas of cancer, and the atom bomb’s effects; which assisted in leading us to important developments such as in vitro conception, replication (cloning), and gene planning; and have been marketed by the highest numbers imaginable.
However Henrietta Lacks continues essentially to be unknown, submerged under the earth in an unmarked grave. Currently, writer Rebecca Skloot brings readers on a voyage, “from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East