A coalition
of national Black faith and civil rights leaders, along with the heads of
the largest historically Black religious denominations, are calling on
United States Congressional and Senate leaders to ensure that state and local governments have the resources
needed to support communities of color across the nation.
The following letter was submitted to members of Congress and the Senate.
We,
the undersigned, call upon the U.S. Congress to ensure that state and
local governments have the resources they need to help communities rise
from the ashes of this terrible pandemic that has
taken more than 65,000 American lives to date.
The
Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC) and independent churches
represented in this statement comprise a combined membership of more
than 25 million people and more than 30,000 congregations.
The
civil rights organizations represented are working tirelessly to
empower and protect our communities – and to ensure that response to the
coronavirus pandemic is consistent with the values of
racial and economic justice.
As
faith and civil rights leaders, we know that America cannot re-open
without strong public services – everything from garbage collection to
water treatment to road maintenance – that keep our communities
running safely and smoothly.
We
are troubled by the reluctance of some elected leaders in Washington to
step up for America’s communities in the same way they have for big
banks and corporations. During this unprecedented moment
of challenge and crisis, Main Street clearly needs the same
consideration as Wall Street. And we are appalled by the impact this
callous disregard for public services will have on people of color.
The
coronavirus has inflicted a brutal toll on the African-American
community. According to the Centers for Disease Control,
African-Americans constitute 20% of all U.S. coronavirus deaths,
although
we are only 12% of the U.S. population. The economic harm that
communities of color will suffer, if the federal government fails to
act, will also be devastating.
State and local governments were facing enormous pressures well before this public health and economic crisis began. During the Great Recession more than a decade ago, stern austerity measures
stifled investment in our communities, imposing budget cuts from which states and localities never recovered.
And
now, with the economy faltering and the tax base crumbling, state and
local governments are in such fiscal distress that they are beginning to
lay off and furlough public service workers, at
exactly the moment when we need them most. A pink slip is no way to
thank our everyday heroes – but that is exactly what will happen unless
Congress moves quickly to invest enough aid to fix the problem.
We
urge Congress to remember that, for decades, the public sector has been
one of the nation’s most dependable employers of African-Americans,
lifting generations of black families into the middle
class.
Furthermore,
support for public services should not be used as a bargaining chip to
allow corporations to escape liability and accountability during this
pandemic. When the Majority Leader of the United States
Senate casually says we should let states go bankrupt or that he will
not provide support for state and local governments without also
providing a liability shield for corporations, that is a slap in the
face to the hardworking public sector employees – from
nurses to corrections officers to school custodians – who are putting
their lives on the line to keep their neighbors safe. In the meantime,
he always finds money to bail out the ultra-wealthy, never telling the
CEOs to tighten their belts or do more with
less. In fact, the coronavirus relief bill passed in late March
contains what the New York Times calls “a small change to tax policy [that] could hand $170 billion in tax savings to real estate tycoons.”
If we have
learned anything from the extraordinary hardship of the past three
months, it is that protecting America’s communities requires a sturdy
public service infrastructure and robust support for the men
and women on the front lines of this pandemic. This is no time to
abandon public service workers. This is a moment to fund the front
lines.
Signatories:
Reverend Al
Sharpton, President of the National Action Network; Reverend W. Franklyn
Richardson, Chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches
(CNBC); Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel
of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; Derrick Johnson,
President and CEO of the NAACP; Marc Morial, President & CEO of the
National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, President
and CEO of the National
Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black
Women’s Roundtable Public Policy Network; Kristen Clarke, President
& Executive Director of the National Lawyers' Committee
Source: Amaris Cockfield
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