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Tuskegee Institute
Elsie Lacks’ family sent her to Crownsville (formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane) after it became impossible to keep her safe and healthy at home. During the 1950s, however, Crownsville was essentially a dumping ground for unwanted African Americans—the ill, the mentally impaired, and even criminals. The hospital was hugely overcrowded, and doctors often performed terrible experiments on their patients, who were unable to give consent. For Rebecca Skloot, Crownsville represents the horrors that can be inflicted on voiceless patients (especially a mentally ill black woman like Elsie) by an uncaring medical establishment. For Deborah Lacks, meanwhile, Crownsville emblemizes the breakup of her family. She mourns for Elsie has much as she does for Henrietta, and is obsessed with the horror of her sister’s fate.
Crownsville State Hospital Quotes in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks quotes below all refer to the symbol of Crownsville State Hospital. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 35
Quotes
Take one of me and my sister by her and my mother grave…It’ll be the only picture in the world with the three of us almost together.
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Crownsville State Hospital Symbol Timeline in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The timeline below shows where the symbol Crownsville State Hospital appears in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside
...no longer care for Elsie. On the advice of doctors, they moved her to the Crownsville State Hospital, which used to be known as the “Hospital for the Negro Insane.” Cousins...
(full context)
Chapter 28: After London
...answering the phone. She reads her mother’s records, and learns that Elsie ended up in Crownsville. Deborah is afraid that Elsie was experimented on, and grows more suspicious after learning that...
(full context)
Chapter 33: The Hospital for the Negro Insane
...Deborah find out what happened to Elsie. After visiting Christoph’slab, the two women travel to Crownsville. They plan to stop at Clover and Roanoke on the way back.
(full context)
The two arrive at Crownsville, which has a beautiful, 1200-acre campus. The main office is abandoned, and Rebecca feels that...
(full context)
...Elsie’s picture. He also gives her the two newspaper clippings about the terrible conditions at Crownsville during the time that Elsie lived there.
(full context)
Rebecca describes the nightmare of 1950s Crownsville, which was packed full of black patients, who were kept in tiny, filthy cells. Violence...
(full context)
