This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, was written by Dr. Adele Newson-Horst, Professor of English at Morgan State University. The reader is Dr. Newson-Horst. 

Henrietta Lacks is best recognized for her immortal HeLa cell line (named for the first two letters of her first and last names). 

Since her death in 1951, her cells divide again and again and rebuild after each division. It is because HeLa cells can be grown continuously in labs, researchers started to rely heavily on them for their experiments.