On March 27, an all-too-common tragedy struck Nashville, Tenn. as a school shooting left three children and three adults dead, according to police reports.
The United States is no stranger to these horrible events. A 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saw firearm-related injuries leap to become the leading cause of death among those ages one to 19, overtaking motor vehicle accidents.
Something that the satirical news site The Onion illustrates well is that whenever a mass shooting occurs, they publish an article with the exact same title: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.” The tradition would be funny if it wasn’t so true.
These shootings are very rarely met with action in terms of additional firearm restrictions, and it’s something that sparks outrage in communities affected by this violence. After the Nashville shooting, protestors took to the State House to let their voices be heard in their legislature. The demonstration, held on March 30, saw Tennessee State House Representatives Justin Jones of Nashville, Justin Pearson of Memphis and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville lead chants in the legislative chamber.
Lawmakers in Tennessee are not allowed to speak in the chamber unless the Speaker recognizes them to do so. By leading the protest, the three representatives broke the rules of the state house.
In a deep southern state that is controlled by supermajorities of Republicans in both chambers, it’s fair to say that getting your voice heard as a Democratic legislator isn’t easy. What these three representatives did was inspiring because it shows the rest of the country that it’s possible to fight for what you believe in, even if you may be outnumbered. I think we can all take a lesson from ‘The Tennessee Three’, as they’ve come to be known these past weeks.
After the event, the three lawmakers were stripped of their committee assignments, and even lost identification access to the State Capitol. Eventually, State House Speaker Cameron Sexton decided that the reps’ actions warranted the most extreme punishment possible: expulsion from the state house.
Expelling duly-elected government officials is absolutely ridiculous, especially considering what they are being punished for: protesting without permission. Did they break the rules of the state house? Yes, and all three of the reps admit that. Jones explained it best in his floor speech preceding the expulsion vote, “We brought a megaphone because you cut our people off, and you cut their representatives off from the microphone, time after time after time after time after time again,” Jones said.
Both Jones and Pearson were expelled from their seats on April 6. Johnson was spared expulsion by a margin of one vote. Something that immediately struck onlookers following the votes was the racial element of the debacle, as both Jones and Pearson are young Black men and Johnson is an older white woman. Johnson herself even stated in remarks to reporters when asked why she was spared the punishment, “It might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Under Tennessee state law, it is the responsibility of the respective county boards to appoint interim representatives after a vacancy occurs in the State House. On April 10, just four days after being expelled from the legislature, The Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County unanimously voted to return Rep. Jones to his seat. He was sworn back in later that day. Additionally, on April 12, Rep. Pearson was unanimously reinstated by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, though it is worth noting that the Republican members of the Board ended up not showing up for the vote.
The county boards did the right thing by returning the duly-elected officials to their seats. The two men represent diverse, urban areas, and the legislature depriving over 140,000 people of representation in the state house for a political stunt is appalling.
There’s a famous saying by the late congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis that comes to mind, “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” The foundation of ‘good trouble’ is that sometimes breaching decorum and the rules is not only the right thing to do, but also necessary.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
