Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cancer cells helped pioneer multiple medical breakthroughs, will have a statue built in her honor in her birthplace of Roanoke, Virginia.
The statue will go up where the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee used to stand, according to National Public Radio. The Lee statue was taken down in 2020 after being vandalized during the Black Lives Matter protests that summer.
“This historical moment, occasion, has been a long time coming,” said Ron Lacks, whose father, Lawrence Lacks, is Henrietta’s oldest and only living child, according to London’s Guardian newspaper.