Henrietta Lacks Plaza

In 1920, a girl was born in Roanoke who would change medicine forever without knowing it. Henrietta Lacks's cells — taken without her consent in 1951 — became the HeLa cell line, the most important cell line in medical research. Those cells helped develop the polio vaccine. They've been used in cancer treatments and COVID vaccines. Rebecca Skloot's *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* brought her story to millions of readers who had benefited from her cells without ever hearing her name. The statue installed here in 2024 — designed by Bryce Cobbs and completed by Lawrence Bechtel — stands at 410 3rd Street SW. Roanoke spent a century as a railroad boomtown that became Southwest Virginia's economic and cultural hub, then had to rebuild itself when that engine left. This plaza honors a woman whose contribution to the world came from this city, taken without permission, given without limit.