Beyonce shares open letter penned by her activist mom Tina Lawson on Heroes Act bill

Beyonce took to Instagram on Sunday to share an open letter urging U.S. senators to pass the Heroes Act bill to ‘ensure that our vote is protected this election cycle.’

The Heroes Act (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) aims to help Americans and in particular, ‘disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities’.

Beyonce, 38, and her mother Tina Lawson, wrote, ‘I am proud to stand with my mother, @mstinalawson and the Mothers of The Movement to send this open letter to senators calling for the passing of the Heroes Act.  

‘This bill would help provide funding to ensure that our vote is protected this election cycle. Read the letter and add your voice with ours.

The Houston native urged her 149 million followers that ‘together we can be the change we want to see in the world,’ ending with the powerful hashtag #ANDSTILLIVOTE.

The Grammy-winning star included a petition to sign in support of Lawson’s letter, which was addressed to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

The HEROES (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act, which was proposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic – and its subsequent impact on all aspects of life – is aimed at protecting the voting rights of the ‘disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities.’

Lawson had a number of celeb cosigners to her letter, including Beyoncé and Solange, Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Regina King and Kerry Washington. 

The letter is also cosigned by the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner and the matriarch of George Floyd’s family, among others.

Lawson said in the letter, ‘We are concerned Black women. Many of us are mothers of Black sons and daughters — some of whom have lost our children — and we have a vision for a new America.

‘This past month has culminated in a moment of reckoning for the country.’

She continued: ‘As members of the Black community, we are hurting, we are angry, and we are anguished by the repeated assaults of Black bodies, brought to light once again by the recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of what has for too long been incorrectly coined “justice.”

‘But even in this moment, when we feel despair and deep exhaustion, we remember one essential truth: our voices have power.’

In her letter, Lawson noted that ‘unnecessary roadblocks to the ballot’ prevent in the effort to ‘create a democracy that truly represents us all.’

She added: ‘Chaos at polling places in recent primaries has demonstrated that elections officials are unprepared to hold safe and accessible elections this year,’ noting disastrous scenes in Milwaukee, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Kentucky, where voters’ lives were endangered amid the pandemic, as they to stand in long lines at understaffed election facilities.

‘This is modern-day voter suppression plain and simple,’ Lawson said. ‘Voters in all these states risked their health, and that of their communities, simply to make their voices heard. People should be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote and stay healthy, even during a pandemic. ‘

‘We should not have to choose between public health and a functioning democracy.’