Tennessee strikes again. The state that supports groping children has now disenfranchised Black majority districts in Nashville and Memphis:

Tennessee Democratic Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville was expelled from the state House by Republicans on Thursday in a 72-25 vote — all the result of a Republican leadership effort to equate a peaceful gun protest in the state House to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

 

Republican members of the state House began pushing for the expulsion of Jones and fellow Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville and Justin Pearson of Memphis after the trio participated in a protest against lax gun laws from the floor of the chamber last week in the wake of the Nashville school shooting that left six people — three children and three school staff members — dead.

Justin Pearson was also expelled. Gloria Johnson was not. Here’s why:

The  peckerwoods behind this despicable action claim that the reason was decorum. Decorum, my ass. Blatant racism is the reason. Rep. Johnson joined the protest as well. If decorum was the reason she, too, would have been expelled. I guess they didn’t want to upset the “little lady.” Decorum, my ass.

The worst thing of all is that the peckerwoods behind the expulsion don’t care that it’s a blatantly racist act. If decorum was the issue Johnson should have been expelled as well. Decorum, my ass.

It’s the 21st Century. This sort of blatant bigotry *should* be a vestige of the bad old days in the South. It obviously is not. Decorum, my ass.

The peckerwoods behind this Jim Crow throwback didn’t consider the possibility that the expulsion would backfire. It already has. It’s made heroes out of Justins Jones and Pearson. I’d never heard of either before. I suspect we’ll  be hearing a great deal about them in the years to come.

Nashville was the birthplace of one of the most heroic civil rights groups, SNCC. Students from Fisk University in Nashville were behind the freedom rights. The great John Lewis was one of the leaders of SNCC. The expulsion is a bloodless version of the beatdown Lewis suffered in Selma. He went on to great things. I hope Jones and Pearson do as well.

Tennessee was also the birthplace of the Klan. The featured image is of an ugly-ass statue of Klan founder Nathan Bedford astride a horse with an inhuman expression on his face. Inhuman is the right word for the former Confederate General as well.

The ugly-ass statue was designed by a white supremacist. Anyone surprised? His name was Jack Kershaw. His claim to fame before the statue was serving as lawyer to Dr. King’s murderer, James Earl Ray. I am not making this up. Talk about a putrid pedigree.

in 2021, the statue was removed from public view in Nashville after a fight over “heritage and history” as the Lost Causers like to say. Heritage and history, my ass; treason and terrorism are more like it.

I’m following up on Cassandra’s post Something Is Rotten In The State Of Tennessee. It’s better written than this because this was written in haste and out of anger after watching Lawrence O’Donnell’s coverage of the expulsions. Make that righteous indignation over a state lege that cares more about decorum than the slaughter of innocents by an assault weapon. Decorum, my ass.

The last word goes to The Byrds with a song set in Nashville: