James Bedford Forrest Crow III
Well, you can’t accuse Tennessee Republicans of not being transparent about their contempt for democracy (The Tennessean):
The House Democratic caucus on Monday walked off the floor of the lower chamber to protest a disciplinary vote against Rep. Justin Jones, sparking a scene remarkably similar to legislative protests earlier this year in which the freshman Democrat was expelled from the General Assembly.
Lawmakers voted 70-20 to discipline Jones, D-Nashville, after House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, twice ruled Jones out of order during the House floor session Monday afternoon for what Sexton saw as Jones speaking off topic on the bills at hand.
The disciplinary vote meant Jones was silenced for the remainder of the floor session, though he could cast votes. A second vote during this special session could lead to a three-day silencing.
The Democratic caucus left the floor en masse in what they said was solidarity and frustration with unfair application of House rules.
It’s not as if Jones, a freshman since April, is trying to maintain a low profile. Jones came to play, in sportscaster-speak, not to sit at the kiddies’ table. (Or should we say, at the back of the bus?) Jones declared earlier Monday morning his intention to call a no-confidence vote in Sexton.
“The House is out of order under Cameron Sexton’s leadership. This is very disheartening, this is very troubling. This is a step toward authoritarianism, and we should all be troubled by this,” Jones said. “Our Democratic caucus was united. We walked out because that’s a charade, a sham happening in there. And the people are united in challenging authoritarianism.”
The young man doesn’t know his place, apparently. Expelling him and another Black Democrat, Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, earlier this year gave Tennessee Republicans a national black eye. Constituents swiftly voted the two back into office. Undeterred and, given the dearth of fainting couches for GOP members, their remedy on Monday was to silence Jones using tricksy “newly enacted rules designed to punish disruptive members” perhaps (to no one’s surprise) selectively applied:
[Pearson] rose to point out that Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, had been gaveled out of order twice while presenting a different bill. But the House clerk argued Sexton had issued first an unofficial warning to Bulso before finding him out of order.
This explanation appeared to infuriate the public gallery, and Democrats on the floor.
As the vote went down, the crowd screamed at Sexton, yelling, “This is a fascist state!” and “You’re racist!”
Chants only grew louder as state troopers began swarming the gallery to clear it. Demonstrators stayed in their seats as troopers began asking them to leave, but slowly cleared out into the halls to continue chanting.
The move by Sexton and his caucus had the benefit of keeping Jones from calling his non-confidence vote.
The Lost Cause never dies
It’s not as if Jones hasn’t rankled GOP feathers even before his election to the Tennessee House, as TPM reported in April:
Justin Jones, one of two Black members expelled from the state’s House of Representatives in April 2023, had run afoul of House leadership before. In 2019, as a private citizen, he was arrested following his actions in protesting a bust in the state capitol honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and later Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klan leader’s bust was removed to the Tennessee State Museum in July 2021, 42 years after its installation. Forty-two years. Do the math. The Lost Cause never dies. The backlash to the Civil Rights movement never did.
Nor does Jim Crow. Or his progeny, James Bedford Forrest Crow III.
Soon enough, Republicans will insist Black Democrats count jelly beans in a jar before admitting them to state legislatures.
Update: