Tennessee House Expels Two Black Lawmakers in Racist Suppression of Gun Control Protest

The Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two young Black Democratic lawmakers—Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis—while sparing white Democratic Representative Gloria Johnson, in a blatantly racially discriminatory vote that temporarily disenfranchised approximately 140,000 voters in primarily Black districts. The expulsions followed the three legislators’ participation in a gun control protest on the House floor after the March 27, 2023 Covenant School shooting that killed three students and three adults in Nashville. The Republican supermajority’s decision to remove elected representatives for peaceful protest while exempting their white colleague exposed the authoritarian tactics increasingly deployed by the Tennessee GOP to suppress dissent and consolidate one-party rule.

On March 30, 2023, Representatives Jones, Pearson, and Johnson joined hundreds of protesters at the Tennessee State Capitol demanding action on gun reform following the Covenant School massacre. During House proceedings that day, the three representatives gathered at the well of the chamber and chanted “No action, no peace” using a bullhorn, temporarily disrupting legislative business. Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton immediately moved to expel all three representatives for alleged violations of House decorum rules, an extraordinary measure historically reserved for lawmakers accused of serious criminal misconduct.

The expulsion votes on April 6, 2023 split starkly along racial lines. The House voted 72-25 to expel Representative Justin Jones and 69-26 to expel Representative Justin Pearson, both exceeding the two-thirds threshold required for removal. However, the vote to expel Representative Gloria Johnson fell one vote short of the two-thirds requirement at 65-30, allowing her to retain her seat. The only substantive difference between the three representatives was race: Jones and Pearson are young Black men representing districts with significant Black populations (Pearson’s district is 61% Black, Jones’s district is 30% Black and 24% Hispanic), while Johnson is a white woman. Only one Republican representative, Charlie Baum, voted against all three expulsion resolutions, citing constituent opposition.

When asked why she thought she survived while her colleagues were expelled, Representative Johnson stated bluntly: “It might have to do with the color of my skin.” Representative Pearson echoed this assessment: “You cannot ignore the racial dynamic of what happened today—two young black lawmakers get expelled and the one white woman does not.” House Republican leaders repeatedly denied that race played any factor in the differential outcomes, but offered no substantive explanation for why identical conduct resulted in expulsion for Black legislators but not for their white colleague.

The expulsions immediately triggered national condemnation from Democratic leaders including President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and former Vice President Al Gore, who characterized the actions as authoritarian and undemocratic. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville to meet with the expelled representatives. The decision represented an unprecedented use of expulsion powers in modern American legislative history—no state legislature had expelled members for participating in peaceful protest rather than criminal misconduct.

Local government bodies swiftly moved to reverse the disenfranchisement of voters. The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted unanimously on April 10, 2023 to reappoint Representative Jones, and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on April 12, 2023 to reappoint Representative Pearson. Both legislators subsequently won special elections in August 2023 to complete their terms, with voters decisively rejecting the Republican expulsion effort.

The Tennessee Three incident exemplifies the institutional capture of state government by an extremist Republican supermajority willing to deploy blatantly discriminatory tactics to suppress opposition voices. By expelling duly elected representatives for peaceful protest—a fundamental First Amendment activity—while applying standards in a racially discriminatory manner, Tennessee Republicans demonstrated their commitment to maintaining white supremacist power structures rather than democratic norms. The expulsions represented a direct attack on representative democracy itself, temporarily silencing the voices of 140,000 constituents in heavily minority districts who had elected representatives opposed to the Republican agenda.

The episode also revealed the Tennessee GOP’s priorities: rather than addressing the gun violence that killed six people at the Covenant School, Republican leaders chose to punish the lawmakers who demanded action. This preference for suppressing dissent over addressing constituent concerns exemplifies the kleptocratic capture of Tennessee government by a party more interested in consolidating power than serving the public interest. The racially discriminatory application of expulsion powers signals to Black voters and communities that their political participation and representation can be nullified at will by white Republican majorities, fundamentally undermining the legitimacy of Tennessee’s democratic institutions.