Community-engaged research (CER) approaches are critical to redressing the historically unethical and exclusionary research practices of academic health research institutions on Black populations. However, increasing community participation without recognizing and addressing power imbalances hinders progress towards advancing racial health equity. The purpose of this dissertation is to 1) interrogate how racism as a system of power shapes contemporary power relations in community – academic partnerships (CAP) between Black communities and academic health research institutions; and 2) identify strategies for shifting power equitably in community – academic health research partnerships to improve the wellbeing of Black communities. This dissertation research follows a three-manuscript format. For manuscript one, a critical scoping review was conducted to examine how racialized power was named, analyzed, and shifted in the research processes and outcomes of health-related CER studies involving Black communities. For manuscripts two and three, the qualitative methodological approach of critical narrative inquiry was used to collect, analyze, and interpret counter-stories from 12 Black individuals who have served as community partners on U.S.-based academic health research teams. In-depth semi-structured narrative interviews and follow-up member check focus groups were conducted to explore Black community partners’ lived experiences navigating academic health research partnerships (manuscript 2) and their desires for building community power in health research processes and outcomes (manuscript 3). Given the transformative potential of community-engaged research to inform social action, attending to relational power dynamics in health research process and outcomes is critical to actualizing racial health equity.