Episode 20: Claudette Colvin and Henrietta Lacks

Claudette Colvin was arrested at age 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus just nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. Claudette and Rosa knew each other very well. Was Claudette the inspiration for Rosa not giving up her seat? We think she just might be!

Lynn tells us about Henrietta Lacks, known by scientists as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years.

Thank you to our sources!

Rose got the information for her story from the following sources:

A Civil Rights Pioneer Seeks to Have Her Record Cleared

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/us/claudette-colvin-arrest-record.html

CLAUDETTE COLVIN (1935- )

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/colvin-claudette-1935/

Claudette Colvin - Quotes, Facts & Civil Rights

https://www.biography.com/activist/claudette-colvin

Claudette Colvin: The 15-year-old who came before Rosa Parks

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-43171799

Lynn got the information for her story from the following sources:

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0132395_henrietta-lacks.jpeg (800×600) (myhero.com)

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0132385_henrietta-lacks.jpeg (260×195) (myhero.com)

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Henrietta-Lacks.jpg (116×300) (britannica.com)

The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks

The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks (hopkinsmedicine.org)

Henrietta Lacks (1920–1951)

Henrietta Lacks (1920–1951) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia (asu.edu)