Henrietta Lacks statue will replace Robert E. Lee monument in Roanoke, Virginia | CNN

LTC Eugene Chu
..."Little was known about Lacks’ impact on modern medicine outside the medical community until author Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book about her life, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”

Since then, activists and institutions have worked to posthumously honor Lacks’ nonconsensual contributions and to raise awareness about the Black women’s often-unknown contributions to science. In 2018, the Smithsonian unveiled a portrait of Lacks at the National Portrait Gallery. And in 2021, the World Health Organization honored her with an award.

“In honouring Henrietta Lacks, WHO acknowledges the importance of reckoning with past scientific injustices, and advancing racial equity in health and science,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement at the time."