#representative gloria Johnson

[seraphic-sapphic-safehaven]

‼️‼️ UPDATE ON THE SITUATION GOING ON IN TENNESSEE ‼️‼️

They have successfully expelled Representative Justin Jones (AKA Brother Jones) of the Tennessee Three from his seat in the TN House of Representatives with a 72-25 majority vote. It was not a fair process. This entire situation isn't fair and was never meant to be.

A motion to adjourn until Monday was made by another Rep. who supports the Tennessee Three immediately after the expulsion vote. That was shot down with another majority vote. They have now moved on to the expulsion of Rep. Gloria Johnson.

The TN House GOP is truly about to fuck around and find out. This will not end well for them.

The people are sick of the excuses.

The people are tired of their children and members of their community dying.

The people are fed up with Tennessee legislators ignoring their pleas and doing nothing to help them.

As Brother Jones stated during his testimony, the people are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

[thepoliticalfuckery]

[arwyd]

Sunday always comes. Resurrection is a promise, and it is a prophecy. It’s a prophecy that came out of the cotton fields. It’s a prophecy that came out of the lynching tree. It’s a prophecy that still lives in each and every one of us to make the state of Tennessee the place it ought to be. So I’ve still got hope, because I know we are still here and we will never quit.

-Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) on the day of his expulsion (04/06/2023) from the Tennessee House of Representatives, for standing with his constituents as they protested gun violence following a school shooting that left 6 dead at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

[odinsblog]

No Action, No Peace

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have been accused of overt racism after expelling two Black Democrats from the state legislature in an act of unprecedented retaliation, for their role in a peaceful protest calling for gun control in the aftermath of a massacre at a school in Nashville.

The Republican-controlled legislature voted on Thursday to spare a white Democratic lawmaker who participated in the same protest.

Justin Jones, representative for Nashville, and Justin Pearson, who represented Memphis, gave rousing speeches in the chamber before the majority-white legislature voted to oust them, leaving tens of thousands of mostly Black and brown Tennessee residents without representation.

Justin Jones, 27, said he had “no regrets” and would “continue to speak up for Tennesseans who are demanding change”, in an interview with CNN on Friday,

“What happened yesterday was an attack on our democracy and overt racism. The nation got to see clearly what’s going on in Tennessee, that we don’t have democracy especially when it comes to Black and brown communities. This is what we have been challenging all session, a very toxic, racist work environment.”

Jones said Republican lawmakers were trying to take Tennessee backwards, and pointed to the state’s history of white supremacy, the birthplace of the ultra-violent Ku Klux Klan.

After the vote to expel them, Jones and Pearson, the two youngest Tennessee lawmakers and former community organisers, were greeted with rapturous chants and songs of resistance by a huge crowd outside the state capitol building. During the vote, the visitors’ gallery exploded in angry shouts of “Shame!” and “Fascists!”

Pearson, 27, told reporters that in carrying out the protest, the three had broken “a house rule, because we’re fighting for kids who are dying from gun violence and people in our communities who want to see an end to the proliferation of weaponry in our communities”.

He later tweeted: “We will not stop. We will not give up. We will continue working to build a nation that includes, not excludes, or unjustly expels. People power will always prevail!”

Gloria Johnson, the white Democrat spared expulsion by a one-vote margin, was asked by reporters about the split vote as she left the chamber on Thursday.

“I’ll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin,” said Johnson, a retired teacher.

(continue reading)

[kemetic-dreams]

Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (born Hubert Gerold Brown; October 4, 1943), is an American human rights activist, Muslim cleric, African separatist, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. Best known as H. Rap Brown, he served as the Black Panther Party's minister of justice during a short-lived (six months) alliance between SNCC and the Black Panther Party.

He is perhaps known for his proclamations during that period, such as that "violence is as American as cherry pie", and that "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down." He is also known for his autobiography, Die Nigger Die! He is currently serving a life sentence for murder following the shooting of two Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputies in 2000.

Brown's activism in the civil rights movement included involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Brown was introduced into SNCC by his older brother Ed. He first visited Cambridge, Maryland with Cleveland Sellers in the summer of 1963, during the period of Gloria Richardson's leadership in the local movement. He witnessed the first riot between whites and blacks in the city over civil rights issues, and was impressed by the local civil rights movement's willingness to use armed self-defense against racial attacks.

Brown later organized for SNCC during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer, while transferring to Howard University for his studies. Representing Howard's SNCC chapter, Brown attended a contentious civil rights meeting at the White House with President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Selma crisis of 1965 as Alabama activists attempted to march for voting rights.

Major federal civil rights legislation was passed in 1964 and 1965, including the Voting Rights Act, to establish federal oversight and enforcement of rights. In 1966, Brown organized in Greene County, Alabama to achieve African voter registration and implementation of the recently passed Voting Rights Act.

Elected SNCC chairman in 1967, Brown continued Stokely Carmichael's fiery support for "Black Power" and urban rebellions in the Northern ghettos.

During the summer of 1967, Brown toured the nation, calling for violent resistance to the government, which he called "The Fourth Reich". "Negroes should organize themselves", he told a rally in Washington, D.C., and "carry on guerilla warfare in all the cities." They should, "make the Viet Cong look like Sunday school teachers." He declared, "I say to America, Fuck it! Freedom or death!"

In this period, Cambridge, Maryland had an active civil rights movement, led by Gloria Richardson. In July 1967 Brown spoke in the city, saying "It's time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn America down." Gunfire reportedly broke out later, and both Brown and a police officer were wounded. A fire started that night and by the next day, 17 buildings were destroyed by an expanding fire "in a two-block area of Pine Street, the center of African-American commerce, culture and community." Brown was charged with inciting a riot, due to his speech.

Brown was also charged with carrying a gun across state lines. A secret 1967 FBI memo had called for "neutralizing" Brown. He became a target of the agency's COINTELPRO program, which was intended to disrupt and disqualify civil rights leaders. The federal charges against him were never proven.

He was defended in the gun violation case by civil rights advocates Murphy Bell of Baton Rouge, the self-described "radical lawyer" William Kunstler, and Howard Moore Jr., general counsel for SNCC. Feminist attorney Flo Kennedy also assisted Brown and led his defense committee, winning support for him from some chapters of the National Organization for Women.

The Cambridge fire was among incidents investigated by the 1967 Kerner Commission. But their investigative documents were not published with their 1968 report. Historian Dr. Peter Levy studied these papers in researching his book Civil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland (2003). He argues there was no riot in Cambridge. Brown was documented as completing his speech in Cambridge at 10 pm July 24, then walking a woman home. He was shot by a deputy sheriff allegedly without provocation. Brown was hastily treated for his injuries and secretly taken by supporters out of Cambridge.

Later that night a small fire broke out, but the police chief and fire company did not respond for two hours. In discussing his book, Levy has said that the fire's spread and ultimate destructive cost appeared to be due not to a riot, but to the deliberate inaction of the Cambridge police and fire departments, which had hostile relations with the African community. In a later book, Levy notes that Brice Kinnamon, head of the Cambridge police department, said that the city had no racial problems, and that Brown was the "sole" cause of the disorder, and it was "a well-planned Communist attempt to overthrow the government."

While being held for trial, Brown continued his high-profile activism. He accepted a request from the Student Afro-American Society of Columbia University to help represent and co-organize the April 1968 Columbia protests against university expansion into Harlem park land in order to build a gymnasium.

He also contributed writing from jail to the radical magazine Black Mask, which was edited and published by the New York activist group Up Against the Wall Motherfucker. In his 1968 article titled "H. Rap Brown From Prison: Lasima Tushinde Mbilashika", Brown writes of going on a hunger strike and his willingness to give up his life in order to achieve change.

Brown's trial was originally to take place in Cambridge, but there was a change of venue and the trial was moved to Bel Air, Maryland, to start in March 1970. On March 9, 1970, two SNCC officials, Ralph Featherstone and William ("Che") Payne, died on U.S. Route 1 south of Bel Air, when a bomb on the front floorboard of their car exploded, killing both occupants. The bomb's origin is disputed: some say the bomb was planted in an assassination attempt, and others say Payne was carrying it to the courthouse where Brown was to be tried. The next night, the Cambridge courthouse was bombed

Brown disappeared for 18 months. He was posted on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted List. He was arrested after a reported shootout with officers in New York City following an alleged attempted robbery of a bar there. He was convicted of robbery and served five years (1971–76) in Attica Prison in western New York state. While in prison, Brown converted to Islam. He formally changed his name from Hubert Gerold Brown to Jamil Abdullah al-Amin.

After his release, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he opened a grocery store. He became an imam, a Muslim spiritual leader, in the National Ummah, one of the nation's largest African Muslim groups. He also was a community activist in Atlanta's West End neighborhood. He preached against drugs and gambling. It has since been suggested that al-Amin changed his life again when he became affiliated with the "Dar ul-Islam Movement"

On May 31, 1999, al-Amin was pulled over while driving in Marietta, Georgia by police officer Johnny Mack for a suspected stolen vehicle. During a search, al-Amin was found to have in his pocket a police badge. He also had a bill of sale in his pocket, explaining his possession of the stolen car, and he claimed that he had been issued an honorary police badge by Mayor John Jackson, a statement which Jackson verified. Despite this, al-Amin was charged with speeding, auto theft and impersonating a police officer.

On March 16, 2000, in Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriff's deputies Ricky Kinchen and Aldranon English went to al-Amin's home to execute an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court over the charges. After determining that the home was unoccupied, the deputies drove away and were shortly passed by a black Mercedes headed for the house. Kinchen (the more senior deputy) noted the suspect vehicle, turned the patrol car around, and drove up to the Mercedes, stopping nose to nose. English approached the Mercedes and told the single occupant to show his hands. The occupant opened fire with a .223 rifle. English ran between the two cars while returning fire from his handgun, and was hit four times. Kinchen was shot with the rifle and a 9 mm handgun.

The next day, Kinchen died of his wounds at Grady Memorial Hospital. English survived his wounds. He identified al-Amin as the shooter from six photos he was shown while recovering in the hospital[citation needed] Another source said English identified him shortly before going into surgery for his wounds.

After the shootout, al-Amin fled Atlanta, going to White Hall, Alabama. He was tracked down by U.S. Marshals who started with a blood trail at the shooting site, and arrested by law enforcement officers after a four-day manhunt. Al-Amin was wearing body armor at the time of his arrest. He showed no wounds. Officers found a 9 mm handgun near his arrest site. Firearms identification testing showed that this was used to shoot Kinchen and English, but al-Amin's fingerprints were not found on the weapon. Later, al-Amin's black Mercedes was found with bullet holes in it.

His lawyers argued he was innocent of the shooting. Defense attorneys noted that al-Amin's fingerprints were not found on the murder weapon, and he was not wounded in the shooting, as one of the deputies said the shooter was. A trail of blood found at the scene was tested and did not belong to al-Amin or either of the deputies. A test by the state concluded that it was animal blood, but these results have been disputed because there was no clear chain of custody to verify the sample and testing process. Deputy English had said that the killer's eyes were gray, but al-Amin's are brown.

At al-Amin's trial, prosecutors noted that he had never provided an alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the shootout, nor any explanation for fleeing the state afterward. He also did not explain why the weapons used in the shootout were found near him during his arrest.

On March 9, 2002, nearly two years after the shootings, al-Amin was convicted of 13 criminal charges, including Kinchen's murder and aggravated assault in shooting English. Four days later, he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP).He was sent to Georgia State Prison, the state's maximum-security facility near Reidsville, Georgia.

Otis Jackson, a man incarcerated for unrelated charges, claimed that he committed the Fulton County shootings, and confessed this two years before al-Amin was convicted of the same crime. The court did not consider Jackson's statement as evidence. Jackson's statements corroborated details from 911 calls following the shooting, including a bleeding man seen limping from the scene: Jackson said he knocked on doors to solicit a ride while suffering from wounds sustained in the firefight with deputies Kinchen and English. Jackson recanted his statement two days after making it, but later confessed again in a sworn affidavit, stating that he had only recanted after prison guards threatened him for being a "cop killer". Prosecutors refuted Jackson's testimony, claiming he couldn't have shot the deputies as he was wearing an ankle tag for house confinement that would have showed his location. Al-Amin's lawyers allege that the tag was faulty.

Al-Amin appealed his conviction on the basis of a racial conspiracy against him, despite both Fulton County deputies being black. In May 2004, the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously ruled to uphold al-Amin's conviction.

In August 2007, al-Amin was transferred to federal custody, as Georgia officials decided he was too high-profile for the Georgia prison system to handle. He was first held in a holdover facility in the USP Atlanta; two weeks later he was moved to a federal transfer facility in Oklahoma, pending assignment to a federal penitentiary.

On October 21, 2007, al-Amin was transferred to ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. He has been under an unofficial gag order, prevented from having any interviews with writers, journalists or biographers.

On July 18, 2014, having been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, al-Amin was transferred to Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina. As of March 2018, he is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson.

Al-Amin sought retrial through the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Investigative journalist, Hamzah Raza, has written more about Otis Jackson's confession to the deputy shootings in 2000, and said that this evidence should have been considered by the court. It had the potential of exonerating al-Amin. However, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his appeal on July 31, 2019.

In April 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from al-Amin. His family and supporters continue to petition for a new trial.

[citizenscreen]

I stand with the #TennesseeThree

Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson

[readyforevolution]

The Fascist Tennessee legislature voted to expel both State Representative Justin Jones and State Representative Justin Pearson.

Note: Both State Representatives expelled are of African descent. State Representative Gloria Johnson was not expelled and she is of European descent. All three were facing expulsion for the same offense.

If it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, if it waddles like a duck, “Baby, it’s a duck”!

I say “Let’s Boycott the State of Tennessee”!

😡😡😡

#BoycottTennessee

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rick McKee, Augusta Chronicle

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 5, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

In yesterday’s election in Wisconsin, the two candidates represented very different futures for the country. One candidate for the state supreme court, Daniel Kelly, had helped politicians to gerrymander the state to give Republicans an iron lock on the state assembly and was backed by antiabortion Republicans. The other, Janet Protasiewicz, promised to stand behind fair voting maps and the protection of reproductive rights. Wisconsin voters elected Protasiewicz by an overwhelming eleven points in a state where elections are usually decided by a point or so. Kelly reacted with an angry, bitter speech. “I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent,” he said. “But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede.” Yesterday’s vote in Wisconsin reinforces the polling numbers that show how overwhelmingly popular abortion rights and fair voting are, and it seems likely to throw the Republican push to suppress voting into hyperdrive before the 2024 election. Since the 1980s, Republicans have pushed the idea of “ballot integrity” or, later, “voter fraud” to justify voter suppression. That cry began in 1986, when Republican operatives, realizing that voters opposed Reagan’s tax cuts, launched a “ballot integrity” initiative that they privately noted “could keep the black vote down considerably.” That effort to restrict the vote is now a central part of Republican policy. Together with Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project, The Guardian today published the story of the attempt by three leading right-wing election denial groups to restrict voting rights in Republican-dominated states by continuing the lie that voting fraud is rampant. The Guardian’s story, by Ed Pilkington and Jamie Corey, explores a two-day February meeting in Washington organized by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and attended by officials from 13 states, including the chief election officials of Indiana, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. At the meeting, participants learned about auditing election results, litigation, and funding to challenge election results. Many of the attendees and speakers are associated with election denial. Since the 2020 election, Republican-dominated states have passed “election reform” measures that restrict the vote; those efforts are ongoing. On Thursday alone, the Texas Senate advanced a number of new restrictions. In the wake of high turnout among Generation Z Americans, who were born after 1996 and are more racially and ethnically diverse than their elders, care deeply about reproductive and LGBTQ rights, and want the government to do more to address society’s ills, Republican legislatures are singling out the youth vote to hamstring. That determination to silence younger Americans is playing out today in Tennessee, where a school shooting on March 28 in Nashville killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. The shooting has prompted protesters to demand that the legislature honor the will of the people by addressing gun safety, but instead, Republicans in the legislature have moved to expel three Democratic lawmakers who approached the podium without being recognized to speak—a breach of House rules—and led protesters in chants calling for gun reform. As Republicans decried the breach by Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, protestors in the galleries called out, “Fascists!” Republican efforts to gain control did not end there. On Twitter today, Johnson noted that she had “just had a visit from the head of HR and the House ethics lawyer,” who told her “that if I am expelled, I will lose my health benefits,” but the ethics lawyer went on to explain “that in one case, a member who was potentially up for expulsion decided to resign because if you resign, you maintain your health benefits.” The echoes of Reconstruction in that conversation are deafening. In that era, when the positions of the parties were reversed, southern Democrats used similar “persuasion” to chase Republican legislators out of office. When that didn’t work, of course, they also threatened the physical safety of those who stood in the way of their absolute control of politics. On Saturday night, someone fired shots into the home of the man who founded and runs the Tennessee Holler, a progressive news site. Justin Kanew was covering the gun safety struggle in Tennessee. He wrote: “This violence has no place in a civilized society and we are thankful no one was physically hurt. The authorities have not completed their investigation and right now we do not know for sure the reason for this attack. We urge the Williamson County Sheriff’s office to continue to investigate this crime and help shed light on Saturday’s unfortunate events and bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. In the meantime, our family remains focused on keeping our children healthy and safe.” The anger coming from losing candidate Kelly last night, and his warning that “this does not end well….[a]nd I wish Wisconsin the best of luck because I think it's going to need it,” sure sounded like those lawmakers in the Reconstruction years who were convinced that only people like them should govern. The goal of voter suppression, control of statehouses, and violence—then and now—is minority rule. Today’s Republican Party has fallen under the sway of MAGA Republicans who advocate Christian nationalism despite its general unpopularity; on April 3, Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, who has destroyed true democracy in favor of “Christian democracy” in his own country, cheered Trump on and told him to “keep on fighting.” Like Orbán, today's Republicans reject the principles that underpin democracy, including the ideas of equality before the law and separation of church and state, and instead want to impose Christian rule on the American majority. Their conviction that American “tradition” focuses on patriarchy rather than equality is a dramatic rewriting of our history, and it has led to recent attacks on LGBTQ Americans. In Kansas today, the legislature overrode Democratic governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning transgender athletes who were assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports. Kansas is the twentieth state to enact such a policy, and when it goes into effect, it will affect just one youth in the state. Yesterday, Idaho governor Brad Little signed a law banning gender-affirming care for people under 18, and today Indiana governor Eric Holcomb did the same. Meanwhile, Republican-dominated states are so determined to ignore the majority they are also trying to make it harder for voters to challenge state laws through ballot initiatives. Alice MIranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly of Politico recently wrote about how, after voters in a number of states overrode abortion bans through ballot initiatives, legislatures in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma are now debating ways to make it harder for voters to get measures on the ballot, sometimes even specifying that abortion-related measures are not eligible for ballot challenges. And yet, in the face of the open attempt of a minority to seize control, replacing our democracy with Christian nationalism, the majority is reasserting its power. In Michigan, after an independent redistricting commission redrew maps to end the same sort of gerrymandering that is currently in place in Wisconsin and Tennessee, Democrats in 2022 won a slim majority to control the state government. And today, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a bill revoking a 1931 law that criminalized abortion without exception for rape or incest.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[swan2swan]

Keep the eyes on Tennessee, because this was a dramatic move from the right that clearly indicates their playstyle for the next few years, and it’s not subtle.

Expelling two (black) members from their House because they joined with a protest in the house is a clear indication that the right’s takeaway from 1/6/21 and its fallout is “slap the label of ‘insurrection’ on any mass protest on government property”. This was retaliation, pure and simple, and the fact that Gloria Johnson was NOT expelled also exposes the racist backbone running through its center.

Hopefully, Tennessee’s voters will shake the fascist members of its House out come next election (and hopefully Mssrs. Jones and Pearson will return to their seats after winning the special election in a few weeks, where they will be able to continue representing the people who sent them to Nashville). Remember that politics begin and end at the local level, so keep watching this state.

[klbmsw]

A political earthquake in Tennessee

April 7, 2023

Stephen Collinson, Caitlin Hu and Shelby Rose

Protestors yell and wave signs in the gallery after Tennessee’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives expelled Rep. Justin Jones on Thursday. (WTVF)

Republicans in the Tennessee state House of Representatives have made a choice: They decided Thursday that protecting decorum in their chamber was more important than limiting access to high powered weapons like the ones that killed three nine-year-olds and three staff at a private school in Nashville last week.

The state's GOP super majority has voted to expel two young Black male Democratic lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, for leading a protest on the House floor last week calling for gun control. A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, a White woman, survived by one vote and was not expelled -- a discrepancy that raises obvious and ugly questions.

“We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy,” Jones told Republican legislators as he spoke before the House in his own defense.

The expelled lawmakers had committed no crimes; they were accused simply of behaving inappropriately in the House. They admit that they broke the rules by entering the well of the chamber without permission and interrupting debate. But lawmakers break the rules all the time and are not expelled. The House in Tennessee has has only expelled members on the rarest of occasions — for bribery and for sexual offenses, for example.

The expulsions -- which effectively cancelled out the ballots of tens of thousands of Tennesseans who had elected Jones and Pearson -- came across as a disproportionate abuse of power that crushed freedom of expression for the two members and their constituents.

One Republican, Rep. Gino Bulso, said that Jones, who accused the House of acting dishonorably during his dramatic and eloquent defense, had made the case for his own exclusion. “He and two other representatives effectively conducted a mutiny on March the 30th of 2023 in this very chamber,” Bulso said. Absurdly, the Republican House speaker last week said the protest by the lawmakers was equivalent or worse than the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the US Capitol.

Given Tennessee’s overwhelming conservative tint, there was never any chance that the Nashville shooting would lead to local gun reforms. But the legislature’s power play came across as an attempt to silence a debate the GOP doesn’t want to have, at a time when the state was still reeling with grief.

But now the eyes of America and the world are on Tennessee.

China’s banks and insurers have become the latest focus of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.

Israel launched strikes in Gaza after a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon.

And protesters stormed the Paris offices of money manager BlackRock.

Meanwhile in America, JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon says the banking crisis has increased odds of recession.

The Supreme Court denied West Virginia’s request to enforce a ban on transgender women and girls playing on public school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

And the former Michigan House speaker said he took bribes as head of state’s medical marijuana licensing board.

'We are losing our democracy'

One of the expelled Democrats spoke to CNN's Ryan Young and warned that American democracy is under threat from Republicans seeking to hold back a young, rising tide of diversity.

“Six people died in Nashville at the Covenant School. Three were nine-years-old but instead of focusing on that, Representative Jones, Representative Johnson and myself are being expelled from the state house because we said we cannot do business as usual,” Pearson said. “No one should be wanting to operate as though this is not happening, as though we are not living in a gun violent epidemic in the state of Tennessee.”

“We are losing our democracy to White supremacy, we are losing our democracy to patriarchy, we are losing our democracy to people who want to keep a status quo that is damning to the rest of us and damning to our children and unborn people."

[the-daily-dose-of-life]

Representative Justin Jones

Representative Justin Pearson

Representative Gloria Johnson

The Tennessee house republicans filed a resolution to expel the three democratic representatives from their seats in the state legislature for "disorderly behaviour".

The resolution said that the three brought "disorder and dishonour to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions"

The expulsion became even more controversial then it already was when the house republicans expelled the only two black representatives but not the third representative who is a white woman, who kept her seat by one vote.

The votes took place on Thursday ,April 6 which resulted in Mr Justin Jones , Mr Justin Pearson being expelled from the Tennessee state house of representatives , while Gloria Johnson kept her seat by one vote.

They accused the three for "disorder and dishonour to the House" for just standing up and joining the 10,000 kids that were peacefully protesting that they wanted to feel safe in school and for the state house to do something about guns.

[seraphic-sapphic-safehaven]

@windyreads Are you asking if you can vote on the expulsion of these Representatives? Because no, that's only for members of the TN House of Representatives.

You can, however, make calls and send emails still. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE y'all to keep doing so!! Please tell these fascist legislators that they've made a huge mistake in expelling Rep. Jones and in currently attempting to expel Reps. Johnson and Pearson as well!!

From my understanding, the number I posted should work even if you're outside the US (just make sure to dial the # as I've written it).

I cannot believe that the same man I protested alongside for BLM during the summer of 2020 got elected to be a state representative.... just for other lawmakers to put in a formal request for him and 2 others to be removed this year. Why do they want him removed, you ask? BECAUSE HE PROTESTED WITH 10,000+ STUDENTS YESTERDAY FOR BETTER GUN LEGISLATION, THEIR RIGHT TO FEEL SAFE IN SCHOOL, AND MORE!!

Representative Justin Jones, also known as Brother Jones to many of us here in TN, does not deserve this. He's a fantastic organizer and now state legislator who has repeatedly put his body, mental health, and life on the line for countless people. And the other two Reps., Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson, don't deserve it either. Especially not for joining people they're meant to represent in a fight for their safety and rights.

If you wanna help them, please call Speaker Cameron Sexton's office at +1-615-741-2343 and leave a voicemail demanding they not unlawfully remove Reps. Jones, Johnson, and Pearson from their rightfully-elected positions. You can leave a name, real or not, and number if you want, but you don't have to. You can also email Speaker Sexton at speaker.cameron.sexton@capitol.tn.gov.

PLEASE REBLOG THIS IF YOU SEE IT, AND PLEASE HELP IF YOU'RE WILLING AND ABLE TO!

[maswartz]

Think about everything republicans have done in the last few years alone. Justin Jones protested alongside people tired of schools becoming crime scenes and for that he was expelled.

[klainelynch]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. learn to know your mutuals and followers. <3

Ooh thanks!

I got an incredibly thoughtful comment on my most recent fic, which I posted knowing that very few people will probably read it, so receiving an amazing comment just had me like lalkdsjfds

Roller derby practice tonight was so much fun - we focused on paying attention to our bodies if a sense like sight or hearing is removed, which made things difficult in a good way.

@goneadrift and @returnofahsoka are reading Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom for the first time, and their reactions make me feel very elmofire.gif

Watching my students play the excavation Blooket was hilarious, especially one class where so many of them cheated and then got 'mad' at each other for cheating, and then they were all competing for second because the student who won was so far ahead of everyone (and managed that WITHOUT cheating)

The Tennessee 3 are all back in the House!! Memphis officials voted today to return Justin Pearson to his seat as an interim representative, just like Justin Jones was by the Nashville council on Monday, and of course Gloria Johnson was not expelled. The two men will both run for re-election for their own seats, and I hope the TN GOP shows their entire behind like they have this entire time :)

[theyoungturks]

Chants of "Fascists!" ring out as Tennessee GOP moves to expel Dems over gun control protest. Ana Kasparian and Wosny Lambre discuss on The Young Turks. Watch TYT LIVE on weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live Read more HERE: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/us/tennessee-democrats-office-removal-vote/index.html "The Tennessee House of Representatives is discussing the possibility of voting Thursday to expel three Democratic lawmakers, a week after they were accused of breaking House rules by protesting inside the chamber to call for gun reform in the wake of last month’s school shooting in Nashville. Protesters flooded the state Capitol on Thursday as the legislators were set to take up three resolutions filed by GOP lawmakers Monday seeking to expel Reps. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, a step the state House has taken only twice since the 1860s." *** The largest online progressive news show in the world. Hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian. LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. Help support our mission and get perks. Membership protects TYT's independence from corporate ownership and allows us to provide free live shows that speak truth to power for people around the world. See Perks: ▶ https://www.youtube.com/TheYoungTurks/join SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE: ☞ http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=theyoungturks FACEBOOK: ☞ http://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks TWITTER: ☞ http://www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM: ☞ http://www.instagram.com/TheYoungTurks TWITCH: ☞ http://www.twitch.com/tyt 👕 Merch: http://shoptyt.com ❤ Donate: http://www.tyt.com/go 🔗 Website: https://www.tyt.com 📱App: http://www.tyt.com/app 📬 Newsletters: https://www.tyt.com/newsletters/ If you want to watch more videos from TYT, consider subscribing to other channels in our network: The Watchlist https://www.youtube.com/watchlisttyt Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey https://www.youtube.com/indisputabletyt Unbossed with Nina Turner https://www.youtube.com/unbossedtyt The Damage Report ▶ https://www.youtube.com/thedamagereport TYT Sports ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytsports The Conversation ▶ https://www.youtube.com/tytconversation Rebel HQ ▶ https://www.youtube.com/rebelhq TYT Investigates ▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwNJt9PYyN1uyw2XhNIQMMA #TYT #TheYoungTurks #BreakingNews 230406__TB03TennRepubs by The Young Turks

[solecoffee]

Representative Justin Jones is a member of the Tennessee General Assembly. Born in 1995 to an African American Father & Filipino Mother, Justin currently represents the 52nd District in the city of Nashville.  

Shortly after being elected, Rep. Jones gained national attention in 2023 following a school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. In the days following the shooting which killed 3 adults, and 3 children, Jones, Rep. Justin Pearson, and Rep. Gloria Johnson protested on the legislative floor of the Tennessee General Assembly with a gallery full of supporters. For their actions, Jones & Pearson were expelled from their post by the Republican majority. Within days, the representatives were reinstated to their position; however, the protest and subsequent expulsion drew national attention to gun laws in Tennessee, and shined a bright light on the racism that still exists among lawmakers in positions of power.

We learned in Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (2018) that representation refers to the use of languages and images to create meaning about the world around us. During the protest to call attention to gun violence, there were several photos taken that have a deep resemblance to what our nation saw during the Civil Rights movement. The images of Black men protesting, while White men order them to be arrested, is a direct representation of the current event as it unfolded, but also mimics many other protests during the Civil Rights movement, such as Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL.

In his essay The Shadow and the Substance (2003), Nicholas Mirzoeff explains there is a clear scientific consensus that there are no biological grounds to distinguish humans into separate races. Nonetheless, the social practices of slavery, segregation, and racism made race a social fact in the United States (p. 111). As it is today, Representative Justin Jones continues to advocate on behalf of his constituents in Nashville, and millions across the nation, to disrupt the system and implement changes to policy which promote equality for all.

Citations:

Fusco, Coco, and Brian Wallis. (2003). Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self. Harry N. Abrams Publishers, Inc.

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2018). Practices of looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.