To continue the conversation from our September article on medical apartheid, it’s clear that the story doesn’t end with history. The legacies of exploitation and neglect we traced are still alive today, shaping the way Black women experience healthcare in America.

The Combahee River Collective is a black, lesbian, feminist organization that was founded in 1974 in Boston, Massachusetts. Barbara Smith, one of the founders, named it after the raid led  by Harriet Tubman on the Combahee River on June 2nd, 1863. The other two founders were her sister, Beverly Smith, and Demita Frazier. The CRC, which operated from 1974 -1980, was a group formed after breaking off from the National Black Feminists Organization.

For many Black women, seeking medical care means navigating a system where racial bias and unequal treatment persist—disparities that continue to undermine their health, safety, and trust in the very institutions meant to heal them. Medical apartheid, a term coined by Harriett A. Washington, refers to the systemic and historical mistreatment of Black Americans within the U.S. healthcare system, particularly through unethical medical experimentation, exclusion, and exploitatio