Carr’s book is a necessary reminder of the reforms still needed to ensure diversity and equality in the public health system. A profoundly moving testament to the courageous Black doctors who fought against institutionalized racism.”
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— Kirkus Reviews
This searing debut from journalist Carr explores the underexamined history of discrimination against America’s Black medical students and doctors....Black doctors and students continually fought back, she notes—including founding an alternative to the AMA in 1895—but current government anti-DEI purges pose a renewed threat. It adds up to an eye-opening revelation of systemic racism in American medical training and a moving celebration of the Black doctors who persisted.
— Publishers Weekly
"The Price of Exclusion is a powerful reckoning with the hidden architecture of American medicine. Nicole Carr weaves personal lineage with rigorous history to show how the systematic exclusion of Black physicians has shaped our healthcare workforce and the health of our nation. This is not simply a history book. It is an urgent call to confront the decisions that still reverberate today. A vital, necessary read."
— Uché Blackstock, MD Founder and CEO, Advancing Health Equity, New York Times bestselling author of Legacy
"Nicole Carr’s The Price of Exclusion is a singular exploration of the struggle for health equality in the United States, and provides a much-needed spotlight on the tradition of Black physicians and Black medicine. With Black history in danger of being erased from schools and libraries, this book couldn’t be more timely and necessary."
— Vann R. Newkirk II, Senior Editor, The Atlantic
"With care and grace, Nicole Carr exposes how the question of who is “qualified” to heal has always been shaped by race and power--often at the expense of Black people and the communities where they live. From the early republic to the Flexner Report to modern campaigns to disguise exclusion as "merit", The Price of Exclusion traces the evolution of the struggle over Black doctors' place in American medicine with depth, clarity, and moral force. This book is beautifully composed and heartbreaking--and as the nation stares down a looming physician shortage, critically important."
— Adam Harris, author of The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right and Senior Fellow, New America
Nicole Carr is an award-winning investigative journalist, professor, and speaker based in Atlanta, GA.
