Henrietta Lacks and Family
Henrietta Lacks and Family — her cancer cells are the source of the groundbreaking HeLa cell line.
“On this day in 1951, Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer at just 31 years old. However, she lives on through the contribution — without her consent — of her HeLa cells that revolutionized medicine,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Lacks family, wrote on Oct. 4, 2025. “Her story demands that we uplift her name and ensure her legacy is never forgotten. Rest In Power.”
Dr. Lucile Adams-Campbell
Dr. Lucile Adams-Campbell, the first Black woman to receive a PhD in epidemiology in the United States. She focuses on addressing minority health and cancer health disparities.
“We know what the barriers are, we know how to try to get around the barriers, but if we do nothing then there’s a problem and that leads to the reality: people get left behind,” Adams-Campbell said in a presentation to Georgetown University students called “The Intersectionality of Cancer, Aging, and Disparities: A Biological Basis.” “When you want to deal with social determinants of health because they all come from baggage so to speak — racism is very pervasive and more pervasive now than ever before.”
Serena Williams: Maternal Health Care
“I am so grateful I had access to such an incredible medical team of doctors and nurses at a hospital with state-of-the-art equipment. They knew exactly how to handle this complicated turn of events. If it weren’t for their professional care, I wouldn’t be here today,” Williams said in an op-ed published to CNN in 2018.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women in the United States are over three times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. But this is not just a challenge in the United States. Around the world, thousands of women struggle to give birth in the poorest countries. When they have complications like mine, there are often no drugs, health facilities or doctors to save them. If they don’t want to give birth at home, they have to travel great distances at the height of pregnancy. Before they even bring a new life into this world, the cards are already stacked against them.”
Lupita Nyong’o: Fibroids
“Over the course of my lifetime, I have carried 77 uterine fibroids: 25 surgically removed, and more than 50 still growing inside me today, the largest the size of an orange. I have endured seasons of constant pain, losing dangerous amounts of blood each month, and suffering in silence. Last year, I broke my silence,” Nyong’o wrote in an Instagram post on March 1 — her birthday — encouraging people to donate to the organization she founded that helps those with fibroids. “The response was overwhelming: women everywhere reached out with stories just like mine. That’s why I launched #MakeFibroidsCount, to raise funds and awareness for uterine fibroid research.”