Dozens of U.S. Cities Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis

On July 7, Memphis passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, following the examples of dozens of cities across the U.S. The city council vote was unanimous. The language of the resolution draws a through-line from the 1866 Memphis Massacre, when white terrorists killed and raped dozens of Black people, to the current Covid-19 pandemic, where the coronavirus has disproportionately infected and killed Black residents, in making the case for a plague of systemic racism.

Among the causes for the declaration, as stated in the resolution: “A failure by any of our citizens to acknowledge the prevalence of ...