A Historic Apology: the American Psychological Association’s Commitment to Dismantling Systemic Racism and Advancing Racial Equity in Psychology.

In 2021, the American Psychological Association offered an apology to people of color for harms, actions, and inactions and accepted responsibility for contributing to systemic inequities. The field of psychology has a complicated and long history of contributing to American racism and the belief in human hierarchy. This article illustrates the strategy the American Psychological Association followed to issue an apology at a scale that incorporated the voices and perspectives of the association's senior leaders and racial equity experts. The authors shed light on the organizational changes that were necessary to approve the apology and the changes that followed the apology to create long-term, institutional, and sustainable change and advance racial equity within psychology and society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).