Nashville.- The second of two African-American Democratic legislators expelled by the Republican majority from the lower house in Tennessee returned to his bench this Thursday, a week after his expulsion for participating in a protest in favor of gun control projected them to the scene national.
Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis was sworn in Thursday in front of the state capitol. The day before, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved his reinstatement.
“Truly, happy resurrection day,” Pearson said Thursday morning when signing the corresponding documents.
Before Pearson’s return, lawmakers in the precinct paid tribute to police officers who responded to a recent shooting at a Nashville school. That fact, in which three children and three adults died, was the one that gave rise to the protest. Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman praised the officers for their courage, but stressed that “inaction is not an option” in responding to the massacre.
Republicans ousted Pearson and Justin Jones for their role in the on-campus protest. On Monday, the Nashville Metro Council voted swiftly to reinstate Jones, who returned to his seat the same day.
Pearson, following the reinstatement vote in Shelby County, delivered a speech worthy of a fiery evangelical pastor to a crowd of jubilant supporters.
The appointments are interim and both plan to contest a special election for their seats later this year.
The House vote was to expel Pearson and Jones, but not Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white. The Republican leadership denied that race was a factor in their decision, alleging that Johnson did not do the same thing that Jones and Pearson did at the protest, such as speak into a megaphone.
The expulsion is a measure that the chamber has applied a few times since the Civil War. Most state legislatures have the power to expel members, but it is generally used as punishment for those accused of serious misconduct, not as a weapon against political opposition.
With last Thursday’s ousters, Tennessee became a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. In the span of a few days, the two ousted raised thousands of dollars, and the Tennessee Democratic Party received an injection of support from across the country.
Political tensions escalated when Pearson, Johnson and Jones, in the middle of the chamber, joined hundreds of protesters calling for gun control measures.
As the protesters packed the galleries, the three legislators joined them with a megaphone to join in the chants. The scene came days after the shooting at the Covenant Christian private school. By participating in the songs, the three violated the rules of the chamber for not having asked the president to speak.
Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have long favored the idea of beefing up school security over gun control with just weeks left in session.
On the expulsions, Republican Gov. Bill Lee has limited himself to saying it’s a House matter, but then called on the General Assembly to pass laws to stop dangerous people from buying guns.
