Power, race, and fragile democracy in Tennessee
Both Justins' — Jones and Pearson — have returned to the Tennessee statehouse. They once again represent the people in Memphis and Nashville who elected them.
However temporary, the expulsion of two Black state legislators was both unprecedented and history repeating itself.
For some, it conjured Julian Bond, the civil rights leader elected to the Georgia house of Representatives in 1965, initially denied his seat by white legislators because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. For others it echoed an earlier moment in Georgia, when in 1868 white legislators expelled all 33 Black lawmakers from the governing body.
Three legislators in Tennessee were on the chopping block. Gloria Johnson, a white woman, was spared expulsion by just one vote. Same behavior. Two different outcomes.
It was a stark example of how threats to democracy are, and have always been, rooted and wrapped up in race and racism, says Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of race, history, and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School.
"This should be yet another wake-up call to
