On March 30, just three days after the shooting at a Nashville school that left 6 dead (3 children), the Tennessee State House reconvened to take up bills. During a vote for the state’s Education Savings Account Program, Rep. Justin Jones told the house Speaker his voting machine had been turned off. The Speaker told Rep. Jones that he was out of order and then called for a short recess. Three Democratic representatives, including Rep. Jones, Rep. Justin Pearson, and Rep. Gloria Johnson took to the podium armed with a bullhorn. They led the crowd in chants of “Gun control Now!”
On April 3, Republicans stripped Jones of committee assignments, and introduced a motion to expel the members for “disorderly behavior.” Nearly a week after the protest, the Republican supermajority retaliated with a vote to expel the lawmakers dubbed “The Tennessee Three.” Two of the three were expelled by vote: Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. The third, Gloria Johnson, survived by one vote. The gallery, which had remained quiet for the hours lengthy proceedings, erupted with boos, and screams of “Fascists”
The voting line was clear, the two Black members were to be expelled, while the White member was not. Predictably, Republicans stated the expulsions were not about race, but simply because, while all three members were leading chants from the podium, Rep. Johnson was the lone member to not speak through the bullhorn. Voting for expulsion was an unprecedented attack on democracy, and an attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters in the state. As Rep. Jones said, “We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy.”
The expelled lawmakers could not be kept down long. On April 10, three days after the vote for expulsion, the Nashville City Council unanimously voted for Justin Jones to be reinstated, 36-0. Rep. Jones was sworn in on the capitol steps that evening. Two days later, Rep. Pearson was also voted, unanimously, to be reinstated to his seat by the Shelby County Commissioners (Home to Memphis). The two representatives were re-appointed to merely interim seats and will face special elections. After the outcry of support from their communities and nationally, it is expected they will be elected to retain their seats.
Through the fascist tactics of massive disenfranchisement of voters and unprecedented and racist expulsions of elected officials, it is easy to lose sight of what the “Tennessee Three ” were doing from the beginning. They were answering the calls of their constituents to reverse the inaction of lawmakers following the tragedy of a school shooting in their community. Although, this feels like “old news” at this point, just over a month removed. That may be because since the shooting took place in Nashville, there have been 67 mass shootings across the country. In state legislators and on the national level there has been consistent inaction and lobbyist-funded opposition by lawmakers, in spite of the demands of their constituents. That is not democracy. What gun control or preventing mass shootings looks like may be up for debate, but democracy is not.