ERASE Racism was launched in June 2001 as a special initiative of the Long Island Community Foundation (LICF), the then 24 year old division of the New York Community Trust, one of the largest community foundations in the country. The LICF board and staff had long recognized racism as a critical issue affecting Long Island . Nevertheless, there were few funding requests from organizations seeking to directly address this issue. In 1999, LICF began convening a diverse group of individuals interested in racism, social equity, human rights and related categories to listen to invited speakers and share their ideas, experiences, and concerns. In March 2001, Elaine Gross (a former program officer with a national funder based on Long Island ) was invited to attend one of the forums. Her comments following the meeting challenged the LICF to move beyond discussion into action. Subsequently, Ms. Gross was hired as a consultant to help determine what action might be undertaken. Her recommendation was to focus LICF's work on identifying and addressing institutional and structural racism rather than on eliminating individual prejudice. The donors, the LICF board and staff all agreed. With funding from participants in the donor forums, LICF board members and others who shared an interest, in June 2001, the ERASE Racism initiative was launched.

ERASE Racism was designed to foster public discourse about the need to dismantle institutional and structural racism in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and to implement activities to advance this mission. Institutional and structural racism results in persistent, significant inequity between people who are white and people of African descent in particular and sometimes other people of color. Historically, this embedded racism is frequently caused by both illegal activities but also by unintentional, unnoticed policies and practices of large and small, public and private institutions and broader systems, which provide advantages or privileges to whites, while at the same time, discriminate against and put people of color at a disadvantage. In keeping with LICF's initial intent, in 2004 ERASE Racism separated from LICF, incorporated, obtained IRS tax-exempt status and began functioning as an independent not-for-profit organization.