Council President Parker planning virtual town hall meetings with Congressional leaders, health experts to discuss COVID-19 impact on African-American communities

A troubling statistic has started to emerge during the COVID-19 crisis in the United States — African-American communities are being disproportionately impacted by the virus.

Council President William Parker is currently working on setting up a series of virtual town hall meetings with Alabama’s Congressional leaders, health experts and other stakeholders to discuss steps that can be taken in order to prevent this trend from continuing in Birmingham.

Birmingham’s population is 74 percent black and roughly 15 percent of the population is over 65, the most at risk demographic. President Parker has been advocating for additional testing sites in order to get a clear picture of who is contracting the virus and identify communities that are more at risk.

“In order to eradicate this virus, it’s going to take cooperation from everybody — from President Trump down to people staying at home and practicing social distancing,” President Parker said. “I want to bring all parties together and figure out the best strategies for protecting our at-risk communities, both in the short term and the long term. This is an all hands on deck situation. We are looking to bring on leaders of our local philanthropic organizations, CEOs, pastors and hospital representatives so we can all be working in conjunction with one another.”

President Parker would like to schedule the first virtual meeting within a week or two. More information will be released as it becomes available.