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NASHVILLE – Metro Council was poised Monday to reappoint an ousted Black state lawmaker and return him to the state House that expelled him following heated, racially charged debate last week.
At least 29 members of Nashville’s 40-seat council said they plan to reappoint Justin Jones, more than the simple majority needed to reclaim his seat.
The reappointment of Jones, a Democrat, could set up a confrontation with Republican leaders in a GOP-controlled Legislature besieged by control gun-control protests following a school shooting rampage that left six people dead. But Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s spokesperson, Doug Kufner, said whoever is appointed “will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires.”
House Republicans accused the “Tennessee Three” of violating decorum rules by using a megaphone to lead the raucous protest on the House floor March 30. Thousands of demonstrators had descended on the state Capitol calling to restrict access to guns.
On Thursday, Republicans in the state House used their supermajority to expel Jones in a 72-25 vote and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, in a 69-26 decision. They failed by one vote to achieve the two-thirds consensus needed to remove Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville. Pearson is Black; Johnson is white.
“The Tennessee Republicans’ attempt to crucify democracy has instead resurrected a movement led by young people to restore a democracy, to build a multiracial coalition,” Jones tweeted Sunday. “We are in the midst of a third reconstruction beginning here in Nashville.”
RACIST HISTORY:In a state fraught with racist history, GOP expulsion of ‘Tennessee Three’ hits a nerve
Developments:
►A special meeting of the Metro Council for the appointment vote was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Monday. Immediate appointment will require council to suspend some rules.
►Pearson will attempt to gain reappointment Wednesday at a meeting of the Shelby County Commission.
►Special elections for the seats have not yet been set, but Jones and Pearson have said they plan to run.
Jones outraged at suggestion he ‘just assimilate’
Jones was outraged by Republican Sabi Kumar, who encouraged Jones to alter his behavior.
‘You see everything under the lens of race,” Kumar said. “When you join this body, you should just become one of us. Just assimilate.”
Jones responded that Kumar, an Indian immigrant, “put a brown face on white supremacy.”
That left Kumar offended, saying in more than 50 years in the United States he had never encountered a racial slur until the comment from Jones.
Biden administration, NAACP back ousted lawmakers
The expulsions drew a national outcry. President Joe Biden spoke by phone with the ousted lawmakers and Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville. The NAACP described the ousters as “horrific (but) not surprising.”
“Extremist legislators, funded by corporate interests, have a history of undermining our democracy and failing to protect their constituents – especially in the South,” the NAACP said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Republicans may think they won in Tennessee, “but their fascism is only further radicalizing and awakening an earthquake of young people, both in the South and across the nation.”
Why were Tennessee Democrats being expelled?
Jones, Pearson and Johnson, dubbed the “Tennessee three,” faced expulsion for protesting over gun reform after three students and three staff members of The Covenant School were killed in a shooting in the school on March 27. Three days later, Jones and Pearson approached the House podium without being recognized, a breach of chamber rules. They led protesters in the galleries in several chants calling for gun reform.
“Their actions are and will always be unacceptable, and they break several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor,” Sexton claimed days later in a social media post. “Their actions and beliefs that they could be arrested on the House floor were an effort, unfortunately, to make themselves the victims.”
Johnson has suggested race was likely a factor on why Jones and Pearson were ousted.
“I don’t think there’s a question how those two young, Black men were spoken to was in a different manner than the way I was spoken to,” she said.
But GOP leaders have said Johnson’s actions were less egregious – she was a less-active participant and had not used a megaphone. The expulsions had nothing to do with race but were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings would be tolerated, they said.
Contributing: Cassandra Stephenson, Nashville Tennessean; The Associated Press
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