Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

During the 1950’s, African-Americans suffered great oppression. Also with the Jim Crow laws in place and other harsh restrictions put on them, mandated and expanded racial issues. African-Americans were given freedom, but they were very limited. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the story is revolved around two different people from two different backgrounds trying to find out the same question. Who is Henrietta Lacks, and why is she so important? Henrietta Lacks, was an poor, uneducated African-American woman who suffered from a cancerous tumor, and whose cells multiplied and was used to create an “immortal cell line for scientific experimentation”. Both Rebecca Skloot the author of the book, and Deborah Lacks her fourth child were on a journey to seek and gain more information about the cells of one individual that changed the whole entire world. However, one faced more racial restriction than the other one. During this time era, Blacks weren’t able to exercise much freedom as they do now, which hindered Deborah from obtaining as much knowledge of her mother. Especially in attempting to getting knowledge from the John Hopkins hospital which provided African-Americans with free health care in exchange of cell samples without their …show more content…
From my perspective, the narrator teaches me that being white in that time period allowed you to obtain certain privileges. Even though her cells were taken without her knowing, the outcome led to a worldwide, life-changing phenomenon. Imagine if John Hopkins did not find anyone who cells were able to multiply, imagine how different the medical field would be and what other methods they would us now. Henrietta’s cells saved many lives, her cells were able things other peoples cells could not. Though she faced injustice, her cells made a huge impact to everyone's