Monument unveiled at Tuskegee University to remember Henrietta Lacks and her impact on polio fight

Tuskegee HeLa Cell Recognition Project monument unveiled at Tuskegee University, Monday, March 11, 2024 – Photo from WAKA Action 8 News

A monument has been unveiled at Tuskegee University in remembrance of Henrietta Lacks and how HeLa cells transformed the fight against polio.

A ceremony was held on campus Monday involving the university, Rotary District 6880 and other sponsors and donors. Rotary International has made polio eradication its worldwide charitable focus.

Tuskegee University played a critically important role in that fight.

Henrietta Lacks was 30 years old when she entered Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 to be treated for cervical cancer. She later died, but her cancer cells helped change medicine forever.

The cells, called HeLa cells in Lacks’ memory, were shared by Johns Hopkins worldwide for scientific research.

At Tuskegee University, its Tuskegee Infantile Paralysis Center was launched in 1940, while across campus at the Carver Research Foundation building, scientists were using HeLa cells to help in what would become Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine.

That vaccine virtually eliminated polio and saved countless lives across recent generations.

“This research benefited an untold number of individuals all over the world and we are grateful that some of those opportunities were developed here at Tuskegee University,” Tuskegee University President Dr. Charlotte Morris told Action 8 News.

As part of the Tuskegee HeLa Cell Recognition Project, the monument was unveiled outside George Washington Carver Hall. Five double-sided granite stones showcase the people who established and operated the HeLa cell factory at Tuskegee. They are President Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Henry Meriweather Henderson, Henrietta Lacks, Russel Wilford Brown, Charles Hudson Bynum, Daniel Basil O’Conner, George Washington Carver, Norma Gaillard and the HelLa cell technicians as well as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

A family member of one of those honored is grateful for the recognition of the project.

“We grew up on this campus, and Mom used to come here and work in the Samuel Armstrong Building with the Carver Research Foundation, and as a young man I really never knew the things that she was doing and the impact of what her work and studies would accomplish in the world, so to see this now is really amazing,” Michael Gaillard, whose mother Norma Gaillard is being honored on the monument, said.

Four granite benches surround the monument. Two recognize Rotary International.

“Rotary is a worldwide organization with over one million members, and our main goal is to help others. If you have a giving heart, a kind heart that wants to see betterment across your community and across the world, Rotary does it every day,” Sam Adams of the Montgomery Rotary Club and Foundation said.

The other two benches are engraved with additional HeLa cell information. Those who attended the ceremony received a special coin in memory of Henrietta Lacks.