Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson is putting Republican lawmakers on blast after they voted Thursday (April 6) to expel him and another Black Democrat from the state’s House of Representatives over a protest against gun violence and the recent massacre at a Christian school in Nashville.
“We can never normalize the ending of democracy,” Pearson, a Democrat who represents Memphis, told reporters following his expulsion that evening, per The Huffington Post. “If you want to fight to change it, if you want to help to make this place a better place, you have to use your voice, you have to use your power, and, yes, sometimes you’ve got to get expelled.”
GOP legislators moved to expel Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville for “disorderly behavior” during demonstrations at the House last week. Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a white Democrat who protested alongside them, was on the chopping block for expulsion but was spared by the majority Republican legislature.
“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 itself,” Pearson said.
The protest came after a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children. The shooter, identified as Aubrey Hale, was killed by police during the rampage.
President Joe Biden joined the expelled Democrats in slamming GOP lawmakers, calling the expulsion “undemocratic” in a Thursday tweet.
“Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting. And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action,” Biden said. “It’s shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”
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