Seven Memphis City Council members have called for more aggressive action to get COVID-19 vaccination efforts into Black areas of the city in an open letter to church pastors that urges them and their congregations to put pressure on elected officials to address inequities. 

The letter follows an offer last week by Pastors Ricky and Sheila Floyd of Frayser’s Pursuit of God Transformation Center to use the church as a vaccination site.

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“Considering their bold action, our challenge to you all is straightforward,” the council members wrote in an open letter to local religious leaders dated Feb. 5.

“We are asking Memphis-area clergy to demand that every elected official within the County use his or her power and influence to immediately address the inequities as it relates to the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine in non-affluent communities,” the letter reads.

It also calls on places of worship and congregations “to offer the use of your congregational spaces and/or parking areas and your influence to ensure that your members, and their families, seek and receive vaccinations they deserve.”

The letter is signed by council members Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Martavius Jones, Edmund Ford Sr., Rhonda Logan, JB Smiley Jr., Patrice Robinson and Jamita Swearengen.

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It marks a critical moment in what has so far been a fairly consistent message behind the countywide effort.

The message that the Shelby County Health Department is calling the shots on the pandemic response has weathered differences that have surfaced in the past over pandemic restrictions on businesses.

The letter is critical of the racial disparity that has made the virus more prevalent and deadly among the city’s African American population. It also criticizes testing and vaccine distribution efforts that have failed to reach low- to moderate-income and Black communities, specifically in the Raleigh and Frayser areas.

“Therefore, statements from the Health Department ring hollow as they attempt to assure us that locations are being sought to administer the vaccine within Raleigh and Frayser, given their repeated lack of advance planning for these communities from the outset,” the letter reads.

The letter cites vaccinations statistics showing 11% of the vaccinations given by the end of last week had gone to Black citizens.

Shelby County Commissioner Willie Brooks, whose district includes Raleigh and Frayser, pushed Health Officer Dr. Bruce Randolph on a Frayser vaccination site at Monday’s commission session – specifically the offer from the Floyds as well as an offer from Apostle Bill Adkins, pastor of Greater Imani Church in Raleigh.

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Randolph says health department officials had toured several potential sites in the area but he said he didn’t have a timetable for possibly opening a site there.

Brooks called on the health department to include elected officials, including the commission and council, in those discussions and negotiations.

“We want to be transparent and ensure equity across the board,” Brooks told Randolph. “It doesn’t look well in terms of representation.”

The call to push the health department for more sites in Black communities and to take more aggressive steps to address a racial disparity that began in infection and death rates and has now surfaced in testing and vaccination data is a shift in emphasis from state efforts to now include local actions.

The commission and council have each approved resolutions urging Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to order a statewide mask mandate.

The council also approved a resolution this month urging the Biden administration to bypass the state and send vaccine directly to the city for distribution. The move is part of a larger push by more than two dozen large cities across the country.

The commission approved a resolution this month urging the state to move up teachers on the priority list of who gets vaccinated first.