Shelby County officials in Tennessee have voted unanimously to reappoint Democratic state Rep Justin Pearson following his expulsion by the state’s Republican-controlled House for joining gun control protests at the capitol.
The Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 on 12 April to reinstate Mr Pearson to his district seat serving the Memphis area, just days after GOP lawmakers ousted him and another Black Democratic member, state Rep Justin Jones.
On 11 April, Mr Jones was sworn back into office after Nashville’s Metro Council unanimously voted to send the freshman lawmaker back to the House.
Both men were expelled last week for protesting in the House chamber in the wake of the mass shooting at a Nashville school, fuelling urgent demands from hundreds of people, mostly students, who called on lawmakers to advance critical gun reform measures. GOP lawmakers said the two Democratic members “brought dishonor” to Tennessee’s capitol with “disorderly behavior”. A third lawmaker who joined the protests, Democratic state Rep Gloria Johnson, who is white, was spared expulsion by a single vote.
A crowd of hundreds of people marched to the Shelby County administration building to support Mr Pearson’s reappointment to his district seat.
“You can’t expel our voice, and you sure can’t expel our fight,” he told the crowd.
His march also visited the civil rights museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Rev Martin Luther King Jr was killed in 1968.
Mr Pearson invoked Dr King’s declaration that the civil rights movement “lives or dies in Memphis.”
“Here in this hallowed place, this sacred place, we’re showing the United States of America and the Republicans in Tennessee the movement is still alive,” he told the crowd.
The extraordinary and rare GOP-led expulsion was condemned by the White House and Democratic officials across the US as an antidemocratic show of force against Black legislators and voices demanding action on gun reform, while underscoring defiant right-wing commitments to protecting access to guns despite a surge in gun violence in Tennessee and across the US.
Mr Pearson’s reappointment was not certain; the 13-member board includes four Republicans. Only seven members were present on 12 April.
Mickell Lowery, chair of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that the expulsion of both men was “conducted in a hasty manner” that did not consider other “corrective action methods.”
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has urged the US Department of Justice to investigate the expulsion to determine whether such an action violated the US Constitution or federal civil rights laws.
“We cannot allow states to cite minor procedural violations as pretextual excuses to remove democratically-elected representatives, especially when these expulsions may have been at least partially on the basis of race,” according to the letter from Mr Schumer and Senator Raphael Warnock. “Allowing such behavior sets a dangerous – and undemocratic – precedent.”
In powerful remarks to the House ahead of his expulsion, Mr Pearson defended the power of protest and invoked Dr King, stating that “sometimes there’s a consciousness above rule, above what you might say is law – and that the true form of protest is nonviolent disobedience.”
“For less than a few minutes [of protest], we and you are seeking to expel District 86’s representation from this House in a country that was built on a protest,” he continued.
“You who celebrate July 4, 1776, pop fireworks and eat hot dogs, you say to protest is wrong because you spoke out of turn, because you spoke up for people who are marginalised, you spoke up for children who won’t ever be able to speak again, you spoke up for parents who don’t want to live in fear,” he added.
On 11 April, Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee announced an executive order to strengthen background checks for firearm purchases and called on state lawmakers to draft a more-expansive “order of protection” law to keep guns out of the hands of people who could be a danger to themselves or others.
His apparent reversal on gun reform challenges the GOP-led legislature to adopt more-expansive gun reform laws after lawmakers previously indicated that any such measures were off the table this year in the wake of the Nashville shooting.
“This is our moment to lead and to give the people of Tennessee what they deserve,” Mr Lee said.
