The Shelby County Commission voted on Wednesday to reinstate Justin Pearson to his former seat less than a week after his Republican colleagues in the Tennessee legislature, who make up a supermajority, kicked him and another lawmaker out for participating in a protest following a mass shooting at a school.
TENNESSEE THREE: NASHVILLE CITY COUNCIL VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO REINSTATE EXPELLED STATE LAWMAKER
Pearson needed at least seven votes to return to his seat temporarily. Two of the 13 county commissioners were out of the country. Pearson will need to win a special election to serve out the term.
Shelby County Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery, who called the meeting and presided over the vote, acknowledged the weight of the proceedings.
“It’s become a big deal because the nation is watching, and the state made it a big deal when they took the actions they took,” he said. Pearson, who was at the meeting, said he was confident the county commission would "restore representation and say the anti-Democratic behavior of the state legislature will not be accepted, will not be tolerated, and also that our communities will not be bought."
Pearson and state Rep. Justin Jones, also a Democrat, were stripped of their duties after Republican lawmakers claimed the two men tried to incite violence by bringing bullhorns to the House floor during a gun control protest. It was only the third time since the Civil War that the Tennessee House had kicked out a lawmaker.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white Democrat who also participated in the demonstration, survived her expulsion vote.
Pearson has publicly spoken about the pain of losing family members and a mentor to gun violence and said the campaign for tighter restrictions on firearms "is personal when you lose your friends and when you lose loved ones."
The extraordinary punitive action leveled against Pearson and Jones for an act of protest exposed deep rifts in Tennessee, not only over gun control policies but race as well.
Over the weekend, Pearson called the statehouse a "toxic work environment" and said he was harassed for wearing a black dashiki, a tunic-like garment from West Africa, on his first day in office by Republican state Rep. David Hawk, whom he had referred to as a "white supremacist." Hawk denied the allegations.
Later, Pearson posted a photo of himself on social media wearing the dashiki and raising his fist.
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"A white supremacist has attacked my wearing of my dashiki,” he wrote on social media. “Resistance and subversion to the status quo ought to make some people uncomfortable.”
On Monday, the Metropolitan Nashville Council voted unanimously to reinstate Jones, appointing him to his post until a special election.