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Tell Southern Governors to Prioritize #HealthOverProfit

We need your support. Will you sign this petition telling Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Henry McMaster (SC) and Governor Kay Ivey (AL) to not prioritize profits over people?

Governors across the South are being pressured to prematurely reopen our states. They need to hear from us that we can hold the complexities of the economy and the life and death health decisions that we have to make in regards to physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We need to work and we need to live without putting our families in danger of contracting this virus.

We demand:

  • An immediate recension of the reopening of our states and reinstatement of shelter-in-place orders
  • Safety plans for each state before they reopen that includes resources for PPEs for workers
  • Realtime COVID-19 data disaggregated by county and race
  • Increased public health model testing, tracing, and treatment, with specific support to communities that are low-income and communities of color
  • The immediate expansion of Medicaid in each of our states
  • Enhanced unemployment support for residents that have lost jobs or cannot work

For more detailed information about the disparities facing the South and our demands, watch the virtual press conference we held this morning to launch the petition.

Please sign and share widely!

With love and solidarity,

Black Voters Matter
Highlander Research & Education Center
Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative
Southern Movement Assembly

Can you join us and take action? Click here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/southern-governors-prioritize-healthoverprofit

Thank you!