On Jan. 28 from noon to 1 p.m., the Year of Social Justice is sponsoring the kick-off for a schoolwide Campus Read.

The Campus Read Kick-off, which will be the beginning of weekly meetings through February and March, will be held in the AACC dining hall. The chosen book is “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, which explores ethical issues and gender inequality in accordance with the theme of social justice. The kick-off event includes a raffle giving out 50 books to winning students for free.
English professor Regina Johnson, co-chair of the Campus Read Committee, explained that during a Social Justice planning meeting, attendees were asked to come up with activities that would support the larger initiative.

“Several of us felt strongly in the merits of a campus reading program,” said Johnson, “and that it would be perfect to generate campus-wide support for social justice.”

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was chosen in a campus-wide survey that was open to faculty, staff, and the student association.

The book describes the ethical, racial and medicinal problems with using the cells of a woman without crediting her. Henrietta Lacks is a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951. They were then used in medical research, and became vital for developing the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, and many other things.

Henrietta’s cells were completely used and made other people money, yet her family can’t afford health insurance.
Johnson hopes that students will be able to “connect to the Lacks family and their struggles over the years, and be able to realize what social injustice looks like and how we can remedy it.”

“I hope that students will be able to recognize that Skloot was a community college student herself and through persistence and hard work, she realized her dream to make this book a reality for the rest of us,” said Johnson.