As originally broadcast February 4, 2026, on Blue Ridge PBS …
In August 2025, Roanoke, Virginia, cut the ribbon to a new landmark: Melrose Plaza, a partnership between the city and the nonprofit Goodwill Industries of the Valleys.
Built to highlight and help the historically Black community of Northwest Roanoke, Melrose Plaza opened with a full-service grocery store, banking center, adult high school, wellness center and of course Henrietta’s Cafe named in honor of Ronaoke native Henrietta Lacks whose whose cancer cells were taken from her withou her knowledge or consent to become the source of the immortal HeLa cells that have been used for countless medical research advances.
But one big space of Melrose Plaza was left empty … until now. And it’s this space – the new home of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture – that we’re featuring on BUZZ to kick off Black History Month!