AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTUAL PEOPLE IN GLOBAL HEALTH “This book is more than a memoir—it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women.” — Essence “ Legacy is both a compelling memoir and an edifying analysis of the inequities in the way we deliver healthcare in America. Uché Blackstock is a force of nature.” —Abraham Verghese, MD “[An] extraordinary family story.” — The New York Times Book Review “Required reading for all medical students.” —Gayle King, CBS Mornings The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives. What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face. Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our health-care system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Named one of the Top 13 Innovators Shaping The Future of Health by Fortune magazine Praise for Legacy “Ultimately, Legacy ’s greatest contribution is in bringing this extraordinary family story to light — as much a part of the American fabric as those of our default narratives of success.” —Dr. Damon Tweedy, The New York Times Book Review “This book should be required reading for all medical students.” —Gayle King, CBS Mornings “This book is more than a memoir—it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women.” —Essence “At once a memoir and an examination of the racism that plagues both patients and physicians.” — The New York Post “An incisive analysis of why Black people in the United States are disproportionately sick and die early. . . . a searing indictment.” —Naa Oyo A. Kwate, Los Angeles Review of Books “Blackstock effortlessly weaves her personal story of triumph with contrasting, searing data on how we’ve arrived at this healthcare crisis. . . . While this book is a rousing personal story and an equally rousing cry for change, at its heart is is a beautiful ode to Blackstock’s mother and her continuing legacy.” — Juhie Bhatia, Ms. magazine “Readers concerned about their well-being will be glad they read this book. Biography fans will love it for different reasons. Either way, getting what you want out of Legacy is easy, and you’ll feel quite well about it.” — Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Washington Informer “Physician and healthcare consultant Blackstock skillfully blends biography and advocacy in this passionate debut memoir. . . . Inspiring. . . . A sobering and knowledgeable study of medical discrimination from someone with a lifetime of experience.” —Publishers Weekly (starred & boxed review) “Uché Blackstock has made something abundantly clear: If you want to understand a society, look at its hospitals. Dr. Blackstock, one of the most insightful and impactful public voices in medicine, shares her remarkable personal story and her profound insight regarding race, gender, and health inequality. We meet a person who is vulnerable, human, and brilliant. However, this book is so much more than a compelling memoir. These are marching orders. Armed with concrete steps for addressing inequality, readers will be inspired to become better stewards of our communities and society. Simply put, Legacy makes room for us to freedom dream anew.” —Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America “Uché Blackstock has gifted us with a brilliant and timely wake-up call of a memoir. In h