Two Black Democrats who were recently expelled from the Tennessee legislature over their protests on gun control could soon retake their seats.
Both Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis are poised to be reinstated by their local county commissions, which are in charge of addressing legislative vacancies following an expulsion. The Nashville Metropolitan Council will vote on Monday about Jones’s seat and the Shelby County Commission will vote on Wednesday about Pearson’s.
The two are expected to garner the support they need to be reinstated, though their return could be met with Republican retaliation: According to Pearson, the GOP suggested it would gut Memphis funding for government projects if he’s brought back.
Jones and Pearson’s expulsions were both unprecedented and undemocratic, and have quickly become flashpoints in ongoing national debates about democracy and race. Tennessee Republicans argue their behavior in a gun control protest warranted removal from office because it violated House decorum rules. Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a white woman who also participated in the protest, was not expelled. Republicans claimed her role was less disruptive because she didn’t hold a bullhorn as Jones and Pearson did.
Republicans’ decision to go through with Jones and Pearson’s expulsions and not Johnson’s struck many observers as racist. “I think it’s pretty clear: I’m a 60-year-old white woman. And they are two young Black men,” Johnson told CNN after the expulsions. That perception has only been strengthened by ongoing GOP efforts to curb Black political power in the state, like proposing bills that undermine local legislation in Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville. Republican lawmakers have argued, however, that the expulsions do not have anything to do with race.
Beyond the questions about race the expulsions have caused, they’ve also sent a chilling message about the legislature’s stance on gun…
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