City officials in Nashville, Tennessee unanimously voted to reinstate one of two black Democrat lawmakers who were expelled from the state House of Representatives last week.
The chamber expelled Nashville Rep. Justin Jones and Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson on Thursday for disorderly conduct.
The two lawmakers, joined by Knoxville Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson, took over the House floor for several minutes engaging a crowd of demonstrators calling for gun control. The calls for gun reform took place less than two weeks after a gunman killed six people in a Christian elementary school in Nashville.
The chamber voted to expel Jones and Pearson but Johnson, who is white. She survived expulsion by one vote, sparking charges of racism. Republican lawmakers justified splitting their votes by saying Johnson had less of a role in the protest — she didn’t speak into the megaphone, for example.
Jones and Pearson have regularly criticized the white-majority House chamber.
Jones was once temporarily banned from the Capitol several years ago for throwing a cup of liquid at then-House Speaker Glen Casada during a protest calling for the removal of a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early Ku Klux Klan leader.
Pearson faced scrutiny when he wore a black dashiki on the first day of the session rather than a suit and tie. Pearson later said a “white supremacist” attacked his choice to wear the tunic-like garment that originated in West Africa.
Memphis officials will hold a vote on reinstating Pearson on Wednesday.
A political firestorm has been underway since the state House voted to expel the two members for disruptive behavior. That action led to accusations of stifling free speech and racism.
GOP leaders have said the expulsions — a mechanism used only a handful of times since the Civil War — had nothing to do with race and instead were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings would be tolerated.
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Tennessee’s Republican House Speaker defended the votes and said race was not a factor. “I voted for all three,” said state Rep. Cameron Sexton. “Obviously, I thought all three should have been expelled.”
“You cannot ignore the racial dynamic of what happened today. Two young black lawmakers get expelled and the one white woman does not. That’s a statement in and of itself,” Pearson said Thursday.
Jones’s appointment is on an interim basis. Special elections for the seats will take place in the coming months. Jones and Pearson have said they plan to run in the special election.
In the past, the Tennessee House has expelled members for unlawful conduct. Under the Tennessee Constitution, lawmakers cannot be expelled for the same offense twice.
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