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Statue of Henrietta Lacks (Roanoke, Virginia)

2020s establishments in Virginia2024 sculpturesMonuments and memorials in VirginiaOutdoor sculptures in VirginiaRoanoke, Virginia
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A statue of Henrietta Lacks was installed in Roanoke, Virginia, in 2024. The artwork was designed by Bryce Cobbs and completed by Lawrence Bechtel.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Statue of Henrietta Lacks (Roanoke, Virginia) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Statue of Henrietta Lacks (Roanoke, Virginia)
Church Avenue Southwest, Roanoke

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N 37.270527777778 ° E -79.945222222222 °
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Henrietta Lacks

Church Avenue Southwest
24016 Roanoke
Virginia, United States
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Robert E. Lee Memorial (Roanoke, Virginia)

The Robert E. Lee Memorial was a monument commemorating Robert E. Lee, formerly installed in Roanoke, Virginia's Lee Plaza. The stone memorial was approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) tall, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the fall of 1960, just as the first two black students were enrolled in the all-white school system. The monument's erection coincided with the run up to the centennial of the Civil War in 1961. In June 2020, the Roanoke City Council voted to start the legal process to remove the monument and rename Lee Plaza after the July 1, 2020 date when a new state law did away with the prohibition against removing monuments to the Confederate States of America. On just before midnight July 22, 2020, the monument was found to be torn down and broken into two pieces. A 70-year-old man named William Foreman, who was caught vandalizing the monument the night before it was torn down, was arrested on July 24, 2020, and eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Lee Plaza was renamed Lacks Plaza after Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells are the source of the first immortalized human cell line, and who was born in Roanoke. A statue of Lacks was unveiled in the plaza on October 4, 2023. Evergreen Burial Park submitted a proposal to the Roanoke City Council, to relocate the monument to the burial park that was accepted by the council. The proposed location for the re-erecting the statue is at the east end of the park adjacent to the flagpole dedicated to the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.

Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke ( ROH-ə-nohk) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Southwest Virginia along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanoke is approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of the Virginia–North Carolina border and 250 miles (400 km) southwest of Washington, D.C., along Interstate 81. At the 2020 census, Roanoke's population was 100,011, making it the largest city in Virginia west of the state capital Richmond. It is the primary population center of the Roanoke metropolitan area, which had a population of 315,251 in 2020. The Roanoke Valley was originally home to members of the Siouan-speaking Tutelo tribe. However, in the 17th and early-to-mid 18th centuries, Scotch-Irish and later German American farmers gradually drove those Native Americans out of the area as the American frontier pressed westward. In 1882, the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) chose the small town of Big Lick as the site of its corporate headquarters and railroad shops. Within two years, the town had become the City of Roanoke. With a 2,300% population growth rate in the decade from 1880 to 1890, the young city experienced the advantages and disadvantages of its boomtown status. During the 20th century, Roanoke's boundaries expanded through multiple annexations from the surrounding Roanoke County, and it became Southwest Virginia's economic and cultural hub. The 1982 decision by N&W to relocate their headquarters out of the city, combined with other manufacturing closures, led Roanoke to pivot to a primarily service economy. In the 21st century, a robust healthcare industry and the development and increased marketing of its outdoor amenities have helped reverse prior declining population trends. Roanoke is known for the Roanoke Star, an 88.5-foot-tall (27.0 m) illuminated star that sits atop a mountain within the city's limits and is the origin of its nickname, "The Star City of the South". Other points of interest include the Hotel Roanoke, a 330-room Tudor Revival structure built by N&W in 1882, the Taubman Museum of Art, designed by architect Randall Stout, and the city's farmer's market, the oldest continuously operating open-air market in the state. The Roanoke Valley features 26 miles of greenways with bicycle and pedestrian trails, and the city's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains provides access to numerous outdoor recreation opportunities.