Johnny Pleasant<\/a> and Eliza Lacks Pleasant. After Eliza died giving birth to her tenth child, Johnny packed up the entire family and moved them to the Lacks tobacco farm, which was located in Clover, VA. She was considered the prettiest girl on the tobacco farm, which was called \u201cLacks Town\u201d.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAlthough scientists were able to discover the root cause of Henrietta\u2019s cancer, they were at a loss to explain why her cells flourished so incredibly in culture. Henrietta\u2019s Clover relatives, however, had their own theories: Divine punishment for leaving Clover or original sin, or malevolent spirits.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clover, Virginia in 1999<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The population of Clover had dwindled to around 200 when Skloot arrived in 1999. What she found was nearly a ghost town: Although all the stores were seemingly abandoned, there was still brand new merchandise in the clothing stores, and there were half-full shopping carts in the aisles of the grocery store.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lacks Town, the Lacks\u2019s ancestral farm, was separated from the rest of Clover by a two-lane road. Lacks Town consisted of a single road fronted by dozens of houses of various styles and in various conditions\u2014alongside collapsed shacks that once housed enslaved people were cinder-block homes with modern accoutrements like satellite dishes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Skloot drove the length of Lacks Town several times before being flagged down by Hector Henry\u2014\u201cCootie\u201d\u2014Henrietta\u2019s first cousin, who invited Skloot into his home.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cootie told Skloot that Henrietta was kind and generous\u2014Cootie had had polio in his youth, and Henrietta always told him she wanted to fix it. Cootie also told Skloot that Henrietta\u2019s sickness might have been the result of voodoo, cast either by a person or an evil spirit<\/strong>. Cootie believed that spirits haunted Lacks Town.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother cousin, who lived just down the road from Cootie and whom Cootie recommended Skloot talk to, took Skloot to see Henrietta\u2019s grave. It was unmarked, and the cousin couldn\u2019t tell Skloot exactly <\/strong>where <\/em><\/strong>Henrietta lay<\/strong>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile Skloot was in Clover, Virginia, she encountered firsthand the racism that persisted in the South. When she visited the oldest white Lackses still living in Clover\u2014they were distantly related to Henrietta Lacks\u2019s great-great-grandfather and so distantly related to Henrietta Lacks herself\u2014they denied their kinship with the black Lackses and disdained the mixing of the races<\/strong>. And when Skloot spoke with Henrietta\u2019s sister Gladys, she informed Skloot that their youngest sister Lillian had \u201cconverted to Puerto Rican\u201d\u2014Lillian was light-skinned and had married a Puerto Rican man, and she was tired of being black.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat Happened to Lacks Town?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In 2009, Skloot drove to Clover to conduct further research only to find the town had been razed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is Lacks Town? How many relatives of Henrietta Lacks lived there? Are Lacks Town and the town of Clover, Virginia still around? Lacks Town is the ancestral farm of the Lacks family. It has a single road and is across a two-lane road from Clover, Virginia. Learn about Lacks Town and the changes to Clover since Henrietta Lacks was alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,24],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-11567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-society","tag-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\n
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