I (Leslie) am a clinician and have been for many years. 

I’ve been Black for many more years, all my life. 

More than a decade ago, I started a nonprofit, Right to Health, with the premise that, since racism is a proven correlate to poor healthcare delivery and worse healthcare outcomes, we need to fix this. The catastrophic COVID-19 numbers showing a terrible disproportionate suffering in communities of color are only the latest in a very long list of such hurtful, life-threatening and life-ending phenomena over the entire history of our country.

Thousands signed my organization’s...