Lacks family brings book to life

The New York Times bestseller “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” came one step closer to reality this week when Lacks’ son addressed a crowd of about 200 Tuesday night at Berger Hall.

David “Sonny” Lacks spoke to a crowd of students, faculty and community members about his mother’s contribution to science and what her story means to the family. He was joined by a niece, Veronica Spencer, and a great-granddaughter in making the pages of the book come to life.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, is this academic year’s All Campus Reads selection. Skloot’s book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American tobacco farmer whose blood cells were taken without her knowledge and became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory. Even though Henrietta died in 1951, shortly after her cells were excised, her cells have continued to grow and have played a critical role in medical breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and vaccinations.

Sonny Lacks told how his family did not learn that the cells existed until the 1970s. He and Spencer also talked about what it has meant to find out that his mother’s cells were being used in laboratories around the world and were bringing in millions of dollars of revenues for the labs selling the HeLa cells.

Hans Post, a volunteer in the Kraemer Family Library, moderated the question and answer formatted discussion, which resulted in several candid insights into some of the racial, ethical, and legal issues surrounding the HeLa cells. Sonny Lacks was only four years old when his mother died so he remembers very little about her.  He does, however, remember her funeral.

“It was raining and everyone was in black,” he said.

But he said he has been able to learn more about his mother and her helping nature through stories family members have told.

Both Lacks and Spencer were forth coming in their answers to questions. Spencer said that the family accepts the book as opening doors for them and giving the opportunity to continue her grandmother’s legacy. She corrected the book’s portrayal of the family as uneducated. Most of Henrietta Lacks’ grandchildren and nearly all of the great-grandchildren are either in college or have college degrees, she said. Spencer is a nursing student at Baltimore Community College.

When asked about his sister, Deborah, with whom Rebecca Skloot developed a close relationship, Sonny Lacks said:

“We have some characters in our family and Deborah was certainly a character,” before telling a story about Deborah performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a hamster.

On several occasions the audience erupted into laughter. Sonny joked that he loves the glamour the book has brought him and that some students tell him and his family that they are “like rock stars.”

The Lacks Family was brought to campus by the Kraemer Family Library, the Legacy Lecture Fund, the Kraemer Family Endowment, and the Office of Student Activities.

— Teri Switzer, dean, Kraemer Family Library

— Photos by Stephen T. Cucchiara