Black Tennessee State Senators on Friday rebuked Republican members of the state's House of Representatives for voting to expel two Black lawmakers over their protests last week after a mass school shooting in Nashville.
Members of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators said the GOP effort to remove two of their own from their seats — Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — was rooted in racism.
The world saw the optics, the caucus chairman, Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Democrat from Knoxville, told reporters Friday at a news conference in Nashville. I don't have to say anything about the fact that our two young African American brothers were unfairly prosecuted. McKenzie said: "To me, it's a horrific indictment on the Tennessee GOP, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves." He predicted that Jones and Pearson would be sent back to the state house by their constituents in upcoming special elections set by Republican Gov. McKenzie and the caucus said this wasn't the first time that their Republican counterparts targeted the Black community.
He said this wasn't about one event, but it was about the GOP's effort to defund the state's only historically Black college, Tennessee State University, and a lawmaker's proposal to bring back lynching.
Welcome to Tennessee, where there is a pattern of racism that has permeated these halls, said Rep. Vincent Dixie, a Democrat from Nashville.
State lawmakers voted Thursday to expel Jones and Pearson, while another vote to remove Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, failed. The resolutions accused each of the Democratic lawmakers of engaging in disorderly behavior and purposely bringing disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives during a protest against gun violence on the House floor last week, following the shooting that left three children and three adults dead at The Covenant School in Nashville.
The current legislative session has been rough for Jones, according to state senator. Charlane Oliver, a Democrat from Nashville.
She said there was a lot of political bullying going on behind the scenes. This idea that he and Representative Justin Pearson must apologize is a mindset set in white supremacy, a mindset set in that we as Black folk are not on par or not peers to them, and we must be inferior and subservient to their demands. Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat from Memphis, urged her colleagues Friday to allow Jones and Pearson to be reappointed.
This is not our house. She said that this is the people's house.