The second of two Black Democrats who were kicked out of the Republican-led house of representatives in the Tennessee legislature followed his colleague back to work at the capitol on Thursday, a week after their expulsion for participating in a gun control protest propelled them into the national spotlight.
State representative Justin Pearson, a lawmaker from Memphis, was sworn in on Thursday outside the statehouse in Nashville. The day before, Shelby county commissioners had unanimously voted to reinstate him after an expulsion he, his fellow expelled lawmaker Justin Jones and others have denounced as motivated by racism.
“Yes indeed, happy resurrection day,” Pearson said on Thursday morning as he signed paperwork for his return.
“There will be a new building of this building, with a foundation built on love,” Pearson said during a fiery speech outside the capitol after being sworn in and before returning to the house floor.
He continued: “With pillars of justice rising up. With rafters of courage covering us. With doors that are open to everybody in the state of Tennessee. Not just rich somebodies, but everybody. Not just straight somebodies, but everybody. Not just Republican somebodies, but everybody.”
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had forcefully criticized the representatives’ expulsion.
Before Pearson returned to the house floor, lawmakers cheered and applauded as the police officers who responded to the deadly 27 March mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school shooting – the event that prompted the gun control protest – were honored in the chamber.
The Democratic state representative Bob Freeman praised the officers’ bravery but stressed to his fellow lawmakers that as a response to the tragedy “inaction is not an option”.
Republicans banished Pearson and Jones last week for their role in the protest on the house floor over the shooting, which left three children and three adults dead.
In his address outside the capitol, Pearson read the names of those killed and referenced another mass shooting on Monday at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, in which five people were killed and eight others were injured.
“Our law enforcement, which many people praise, are being forced to go to war when they just are going to work,” Pearson said.
“Kids are told to go to fortresses, instead of to go to school and places of learning. We’re told to go to church, carrying the status quo’s thoughts and prayers, while we must be in fear that somebody will walk in with an assault weapon.”
The Nashville metropolitan council took only a few minutes on Monday to restore Jones to office. He was quickly reinstated to his house seat that day.
The appointments are interim, though Jones and Pearson plan to run in special elections for the seats later this year.
The house’s vote to remove Pearson and Jones but keep their white colleague Gloria Johnson, who also took part in the protest, drew accusations of racism.
Banishment is a move the chamber has used only a handful of times since the civil war. The so-called Tennessee Three – participating from the front of the chamber – broke house rules because they did not have permission from the speaker.
The expulsions last Thursday made Tennessee a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. In the span of a few days, the two raised thousands of campaign dollars and the Tennessee Democratic party received a jolt of support from across the US.
In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers have been supportive of the idea to strengthen school safety, but they have largely rejected calls for stricter gun controls with only weeks to go in the legislative session.
