A two-decade-old online health equity resource is now at the center of a federal discrimination lawsuit, as a Colorado physician and a conservative medical advocacy organization take aim at a directory built to close the racial gap in healthcare access.
The Lawsuit: Who Filed It and Why
On May 19, 2026, dermatologist Dr. Travis Morrell and Do No Harm — an organization established in April 2022 that publicly opposes DEI initiatives in medicine — filed a complaint in Manhattan federal court against the online directory “Find A Black Doctor” and its founder, Dr. Dina Strachan. The suit alleges the platform discriminates against non-Black physicians by limiting eligibility to “Black physicians and dentists in active clinical practice.”
According to the complaint, Morrell, a double board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist, submitted an application to the directory on December 23, 2025. After receiving no response, he followed up via email but was met with silence. The lawsuit claims his application was “constructively rejected because he is white.”
“Find A Black Doctor indefensibly robs some physicians of valuable advertising exposure and deprives patients of the opportunity to discover capable providers without regard to race,” a Do No Harm representative stated in a press release.
The legal complaint also argues that the directory promotes “racial concordance” — the idea that patients receive better care from doctors of the same race — and that, as a contract, the platform falls under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits racial discrimination in contracting.
About “Find A Black Doctor”: A Mission Rooted in Health Equity
The directory at the center of the dispute has a history that stretches back more than 20 years. “Find A Black Doctor” was originally launched in 2005 with a mission to reduce racial health disparities and expand access to quality care for Black communities nationwide. Its founder, Dr. Dina Strachan — a Harvard and Yale-educated, board-certified dermatologist based in New York City — relaunched the platform in 2019 as a resource for patients seeking culturally competent care from qualified Black physicians.
“Despite our technological advances, it can be harder now to find what one wants online,” Dr. Strachan has noted, pointing to uneven healthcare access across the country.
The platform lists providers free of charge and expanded in 2024 to cover board-certified health professionals across all 50 states. Its stated mission: to serve as “a partner which provides access, education and resources to improve health outcomes particularly in the African American community.”
A Broader Battle Over DEI in Medicine
The lawsuit arrives amid a sweeping conservative campaign to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across American institutions. Earlier this year, the federal government filed a discrimination suit against a Coca-Cola distributor over a women’s empowerment event, and President Trump signed an executive order threatening to strip federal contracts from colleges that maintain DEI initiatives. Do No Harm has pursued similar legal challenges in the healthcare space since its founding.
Health disparities, meanwhile, continue to disproportionately affect Black Americans — the very inequity that motivated the creation of “Find A Black Doctor” more than two decades ago.
It is crazy that his lilly white feelings were hurt because most of the folks looking are Black! I would add him but make it clear that he sued to get here, that his white Fragility couldn’t handle that black folks want black Doctors!
Go to Africa they have a bunch of them