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When Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was subjected to racist taunts while playing in Boston’s Fenway Park on a spring night in 2017, the widely publicized incident put another dent in the image of a city that has struggled for years with a reputation for being inhospitable to black people. But more than 18 months later, community leaders are looking back at the episode as a watershed moment that brought Boston’s pro sports teams together to tackle racism head on.

The response is encapsulated in a program called Take the Lead that involves an anti-racism public service announcement played at every Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins and Patriots game. The effort also includes a diversity sports career summit and a one-year fellowship for people of colormoves that are meant to boost minority representation inside the city’s pro sports teams’ offices.

Take the Leadwhich Red Sox management set into motion days after the heckling incidentwill not on its own, of course, heal Boston’s racial wounds, which have persisted for decades. Black people ranked Boston as the least welcoming city among eight major urban areas, including New York and Chicago, according to a national survey commissioned in 2017 by the Boston Globe as part of a seven-part series on the city’s racial problems.

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