TRUE GRIT
HOW DO YOU WIN BY LOSING? JUST ASK THE TWO JUSTINS
By Stephen G. Hall, PhD
The two Justins of Tennessee—Justin Pearson and Justin Jones—have been taking the social justice, civil rights, and various other state and national communities by storm over the last few months. Pearson and Jones, two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives, garnered state and national headlines after protesting their state legislature’s lack of action in response to a Nashville school shooting that was perpetrated on March 27—a protest for which the two black representatives were punished by their peers. Calls for common-sense gun control measures are nothing new. Yet in our contemporary moment characterized by mass shootings, this issue has taken on a fierce urgency. Compounding this issue is the fierce backlash against Black Lives Matter (BLM) spawned by protests that erupted nationwide in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, the Supreme Court’s severe curtailment of abortion rights, and opposition to transgender rights. Crucial to understanding the actions of Reps. Pearson and Jones and Gloria Johnson, a third representative involved in the protest, are the attempts by Republican legislators nationwide to BAVUAL 14
For the Badass Within
Ousted Tennessee State Reps. Justin Jones (left) and Justin Pearson (right)
curtail participatory democracy. Often in the majority, these Republican legislators have tirelessly championed restrictive policies on abortion, African American and women’s history, transgender rights, and protest. Challenges to these measures have been heated, but Democratic lawmakers are hopelessly outnumbered in their efforts to challenge what seems to be an autocratic majority devoted to a nationwide agenda of restrictive legislation aimed at minority groups. This restrictive atmosphere and backlash politics played into the Republican legislators’ reluctance to allow the voices of protestors in the Tennessee legislature and attempts to silence them. Following a mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people, including three 9-yearold children, were killed by an armed shooter, protestors gathered in the well of the Tennessee legislature to protest the inaction of Tennessee Republican legislators on gun safety. Pearson, Jones and Johnson joined the protest, which lasted seven minutes, six of which occurred while the house was in recess.
BAVUAL 13 SPRING 2023
