Whereas Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia, was raised by her grandfather on a tobacco farm in Clover, Virginia; Whereas Henrietta Lacks married David Day Lacks in 1941 in Halifax County, Virginia, and they later moved to the Baltimore County, Maryland, community of Turner Station, to build a life for themselves and their five children: Lawrence, Elsie, David, Deborah and Joseph (Zakariyya); Whereas in 1951 Henrietta Lacks at the age of 31 was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and despite receiving painful radium treatments, passed away on October 4, 1951; Whereas medical researchers took samples of Henrietta Lacks’ tumor during her treatment and the HeLa cell line from her tumor proved remarkably resilient; Whereas Henrietta Lacks died eight months after her cancer diagnosis, leaving behind her children, husband and immortal cells that would change the world; Whereas HeLa cells were the first immortal line of human cells, doubling every 24 hours, dividing and replenishing indefinitely in a laboratory, and successfully growing outside of the human body for longer than 36 hours; Whereas Henrietta Lacks’ cells were unique, growing by the millions, commercialized and distributed worldwide to researchers, resulting in advances in medicine; Whereas the advances made possible by Henrietta Lacks’ cells and the revenues they generated were not known to her family for more than twenty years; Whereas an estimated 50,000,000 metric tons of HeLa cells have been distributed around the world to become the subject of more than 74,000 studies; Whereas Henrietta Lacks’ prolific cells continue to grow and contribute to remarkable advances in medicine, including the development of the polio vaccine, as well as drugs for treating the effects of cancer, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia, leukemia, and Parkinson's disease; Whereas Henrietta Lacks’ cells have been used in research that has contributed to our understanding of the effects of radiation and zero gravity on human cells