Tennessee House of Representatives and Nashville Metropolitan Council to Meet Monday to Consider Expulsion of Two Young Black Lawmakers

The Tennessee House of Representatives will be back in session Monday, with an Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, a Government Operations Committee meeting and a House floor session. Meanwhile, the Nashville Metropolitan Council is expected to meet to consider the vacancy in the Tennessee state Legislature after two young Black lawmakers were expelled last week.

Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both Black, were forced out of the legislature in a two-thirds majority vote cast by their Republican colleagues Thursday. This vote came after the two participated in a gun control demonstration on the House floor days prior. The demonstration was led by Reps. Jones, Pearson and Gloria Johnson, a White woman and Democrat, and called for gun control measures in response to a shooting at a Nashville school that killed six people, including three 9-year-old children.

Rep. Johnson survived the vote and held on to her seat in the GOP-dominated chamber. However, the expulsion of Reps. Jones and Pearson has sparked national attention to racial dynamics in the state’s top legislative body. Demonstrators are expected to gather at the Tennessee Capitol on Monday to protest the expulsion of the two Democratic state representatives.

The Nashville Metropolitan Council will meet Monday to consider sending one of the expelled representatives back to the chamber. It remains to be seen what the outcome of the meeting will be and how it will affect the racial dynamics of the Tennessee House of Representatives.