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 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.

Seizing on the opportunity to silence these representatives, Republican legislators immediately introduced legislation to ban them from the chamber, arguing that their participation in a protest in the well of the chamber violated decorum and legislature rules. While Pearson and Jones were expelled from the legislature, Johnson, who is white, narrowly avoided a similar fate.

In a surprise for the Republicans, however, their expulsion of Pearson and Jones, rather than sidelining the two, led to a dramatic increase in visibility for them and their cause, as well as a wellspring of support. Both men were reinstated because their districts sent them back to the Statehouse. They have become representative of a newly invigorated political and social movement to protest the machinations of Republican legislators not only in Tennessee but throughout the nation.

Pearson represents Memphis, and Jones represents Nashville. Both are in their 20s and arrived at the Statehouse this year. Pearson is a graduate of Bowdoin College, an elite liberal arts school in Maine, and Jones is a native of Oakland, California, and a graduate of Fisk University. Both were deeply influenced by the Trayvon Martin killing and the subsequent growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Both are also conversant in the politics of mass mobilization. Using scripture, the imagery of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the indignation inspired by our current atmosphere, they have become the new prophets of nonviolent confrontation and the point of the spear in the effort to challenge the problematic behavior of Republican legislatures.

The two men have met with President Joe Biden, have been widely featured on news outlets nationwide, and are widely viewed as the new face of the Democratic Party. While some more conservative Democrats have been less than impressed with their approach, it is clear that bringing the tactics of mass protest and mobilization to bear on politics in this movement is proving transformative. It is reshaping the political landscape, galvanizing groups and constituencies to fight the power.

Ironically, the Republican legislator who led the charge against the Justins, Scotty Campbell, recently resigned from the legislature after a report that he violated the legislature’s workplace discrimination and harassment policy.

Meanwhile, the two Justins have reinvigorated the fight for social justice within the political system. Their ability to harness the righteous indignation of countless protestors on gun rights, antiabortion legislation, and gender and LGBTA rights is providing a new playbook for elected officials. Speaking truth to power is no longer a slogan or the sole purview of protestors in the streets; instead, it can, if harnessed effectively, become a powerful tool wielded by legislators in their ongoing fight to defeat repressive forces in statehouses across the country.

SPRING