Rep. Justin Jones: 5 Things To Know About The HBCU Grad Reinstated To Tennessee House After Expulsion
One of the two Black lawmakers expelled April 7 from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated and continued his call for meaningful gun control legislation in what has been a lifetime of activism.
CBS News reports that Nashville’s Metro Council voted unanimously Monday (April 10) to return Rep. Justin Jones to the state Legislature, restoring the 27-year-old Democrat to the seat Republicans stripped from him over his protest of gun violence.
"I'm hopeful for the days ahead for Tennessee, not because of the actions of this body, but because of the actions of the people out there, the thousands gathered outside this chamber right now, who are calling for something better,” Jones told his legislative colleagues shortly after his reinstatement.
He added: "We will continue to be your voice. And no expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us, but it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement. And we will continue to show up in the people's house."
What happened last Friday was an extraordinary move by the Republican supermajority. Forced expulsions are rare in the Tennessee House, according to The Tennessean. Only eight lawmakers in the state’s history were removed from office, including six following the Civil War.
Republicans accused Jones and fellow Democrats Reps. Gloria Johnson and Justin Pearson, dubbed “the Tennessee Three,” of leading an inappropriate protest with anti-gun violence demonstrators from the House chamber.
The protest was a response to yet another mass shooting in the nation. On March 27, shooter Audrey Hale, armed with assault-style rifles, fatally shot three 9-year-old children and three staff members at The Covenant School, a private Christian school, in Nashville.
GOP House members voted to expel Jones and Pearson, a 28-year-old Black lawmaker from Memphis, in a controversial vote that garnered national attention and criticism as anti-democratic and racist move. Johnson, a white 60-year-old retired teacher from Knoxville, survived the expulsion vote.
Here are five things to know about Jones who entered politics as a community organizer in Nashville, using activist skills he honed as an HBCU student.
1. Fisk University Graduate
Jones graduated from Fisk University with a bachelor’s degree in political science, according to his bio. While at the Nashville HBCU, Jones received the John R. Lewis Scholarship for social activism. He spent his time at Fisk organizing student-led campaigns for the expansion of health care in Tennessee, the repeal of voter ID laws and accountability for police brutality. He’s currently working on a graduate degree in theological studies at Vanderbilt University.
2. Activism started early
As a high school student in Oakland, Calif., Jones says he was on the front line as an organizer after the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Black teenager fatally shot in 2012 by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Florida. Zimmerman’s acquittal ignited nationwide protests.
He also led student campaigns to repeal Stand Your Ground laws, which are on the books in several states and allow people to use deadly force against someone whom they believe is a threat.
3. Inspired by John Lewis
Jones told The Tennessean that John Lewis, the iconic civil rights leader and congressman, has “been a guiding force in my life.”
Lewis, Fisk graduate who died in 2020, was chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was one of the youngest leaders involved in several seminal civil rights marches, including the 1963 March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery Marches.
“I worked in D.C. the summer he led the sit-in in Congress calling for common sense gun legislation after the Pulse Nightclub massacre,” Jones stated. “That was a transformative moment for me in seeing the movement in political spaces from a sitting elected official.”
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4. New generation of leaders
Jones told The Tennessean that he ran for the state Legislature in 2022 “because this moment demands a new generation of leaders” who are fighting for their communities and “are not backing down to the extremist Republican supermajority that is harming our state.”
Before winning the open Tennessee House District 52 seat, Jones said his top three priorities as a legislator would be voting rights, public education and health care as a human right.
“We are not in normal times and cannot rely on the same normal politics to lead us out of this tumultuous time,” he added. “Nashville has a history of young people, young activists moving our community forward and it is our time now to do so together.”
5. Grandmothers influenced his life
Jones credits his two grandmothers for teaching him the importance of community involvement, environmentalism and spirituality. He’s the grandson of Black grandparents from Chicago’s South Side and Filipino immigrants who migrated to California.
The Tennessee representative was born in Oakland, Calif., and grew up in the East Bay area. He was raised by a single mother who managed to care for him and his sister while putting herself through nursing school.
