Reckoning with Slavery, Colonialism, and Public Health: Implications for Advancing the Health and Well-Being of Black Communities in the Americas.

Since slavery, Black people in the Americas have faced-and continue to endure-alarmingly elevated rates of premature death, infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, and psychological distress. Historically, the discipline of public health has primarily responded to racialized health inequities impacting Black communities through the (bio)medical and behavioral surveillance and control of Black bodies-practices that stem from European colonialism and the enslavement of Africans on slave ships and Caribbean plantations. To date, public health approaches that address the historical and structural