Lacks family<\/a> after Henrietta died. Galen was Henrietta’s cousin. <\/p>\n\n\n\nRead more about Ethel Lacks and her husband, including their abuse of the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Abuse by Galen and Ethel Lacks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most destructive outcome of Henrietta\u2019s death was that Henrietta\u2019s adult cousin, Galen, and his wife, Ethel, moved into the Lacks house in Turner Station to help take care of the children. Deborah, only ten years old, was physically abused and pursued sexually by Galen, and all the children, but especially Joe, were beaten by Ethel Lacks. Ethel\u2019s abuse of Joe would cause permanent emotional damage: Joe, who would later change his name to Zakariyya in jail after being found guilty of murder, would struggle with anger his entire life.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time of Henrietta\u2019s death, there were three children under the age of four\u2014Sonny, Deborah, and Joe\u2014and Lawrence, who was a teenager. (There was also Elsie, Lawrence\u2019s younger sister, who had been institutionalized.)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethel Lacks’ Jealousy of Henrietta<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It was known among the Lacks cousins that Ethel was jealous of Henrietta\u2014Galen reportedly had much preferred Henrietta to Ethel\u2014and Ethel Lacks proceeded to take out her anger at Henrietta on Henrietta\u2019s children<\/strong>. Ethel\u2019s abuse took many forms: She starved them, forced them to perform hard labor, and beat them with whatever was at hand\u2014extension cords, shoes, or her fists. Joe, the youngest, received the worst of it. Ethel would tie him up and leave him in the basement for hours on end, even overnight, with instructions to stand on one foot. If she came downstairs and one foot wasn\u2019t in the air, she would whip him.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDeborah Was Abused by Galen Lacks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Galen Lacks had begun touching her inappropriately. Deborah was only ten years old at the time, and she saw Galen as a surrogate father (Day was working two jobs, and Deborah felt closer to Galen than Day).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day, when Deborah was 12, she was walking with a friend named Alfred \u201cCheetah\u201d Carter when Galen pulled up in his car. He demanded that she get in the car with him. When she refused, he sped off. Soon he returned with Day in the passenger seat. Galen got out of the car, calling Deborah a \u201cwhore,\u201d and threw her in the back seat of the car. Once she was in, he punched her in the face, splitting her eyebrow<\/strong>. Day just sat there.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen Deborah got back to Bobbette and Lawrence\u2019s, Bobbette forced Deborah to tell her what had happened. Deborah told Bobbette that Galen had hit her and that he said inappropriate things to her, but she omitted the fact that he had molested her (she feared that Bobbette would kill Galen if she knew). Bobbette immediately went to Galen and Ethel\u2019s house and threatened to kill them if either of them touched a Lacks child again<\/strong>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nDeborah Moves Out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Having escaped Galen and Ethel Lacks by moving in with her brother Lawrence, Deborah had her first child at 16 and married the father when she was 18. After the birth of their second child, Deborah\u2019s husband began using drugs and physically abusing her. When she started to contemplate killing him, she knew she had to leave; she took her children and moved back in with her father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What happened to the Lacks children after their mother died? Why did Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks move in? How did their presence change the lives of the Lacks children? Ethel Lacks was the wife of Galen Lacks. The two of them moved in with the Lacks family after Henrietta died. Galen was Henrietta’s cousin. Read more about Ethel Lacks and her husband, including their abuse of the children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-11532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\n
Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta’s Sexual Abusers\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\"},\"wordCount\":611,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\",\"name\":\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1704},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta’s Sexual Abusers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\",\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rina Shah\"},\"description\":\"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers - Shortform Books","description":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers","og_description":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1704,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rina Shah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rina Shah","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/"},"author":{"name":"Rina Shah","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287"},"headline":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta’s Sexual Abusers","datePublished":"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/"},"wordCount":611,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"],"articleSection":["People"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/","name":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta's Sexual Abusers - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-08-03T16:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-01T19:39:51+00:00","description":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks were the cousins of Henrietta Lacks that moved in after her death. They abused the children physically and sexually. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1704},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ethel-lacks-galen-lacks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ethel Lacks and Galen Lacks: Henrietta’s Sexual Abusers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287","name":"Rina Shah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rina Shah"},"description":"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-ethel-lacks-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11532"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12288,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11532\/revisions\/12288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}