In Tennessee, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to reappoint Justin Pearson to the Tennessee House of Representatives. His reappointment comes less than a week after the Republican-led House voted to expel Pearson and another young Black lawmaker, Justin Jones, for leading peaceful protests against gun violence on the House floor after the Nashville school massacre. Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Justin Pearson spoke to hundreds of supporters who rallied outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated this month 55 years ago.
Justin Pearson: “We’re going to keep fighting to end gun violence. We’re going to keep fighting to end environmental racism and injustice. We’re going to keep fighting for our community, to lift up those who have been pushed to the periphery, to move them into the center of conversation and decision-making — not the gun lobbyists, not the NRA, not the billionaires and the people who are funding other folks’ campaigns, but rather the people.”
After headlines, we’ll air extended excerpts from Wednesday’s rally in Memphis.