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'Tennessee Three' Revive King's Message For Those Who Need To Hear It

'Tennessee Three' Revive King's Message For Those Who Need To Hear It

Since I could not say it any better than the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I’ll just quote him: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler nor the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”

His Letter from Birmingham Jail, written and published in 1963, was King’s answer to the well-respected white clergy members who deemed his civil rights protests “unwise,” and published their disapproval in an ad in a Birmingham newspaper.

But the message could just as easily apply to the Republican state legislators in Tennessee who last week expelled two Black Democratic colleagues for breaking “decorum,” even as children afraid for their lives continued to plead for gun reform that might make them feel just a bit safer in their schoolrooms. There was shouting but no arrests, no violence, no property damage — just peaceful demands for “justice.”

That Republicans called these demonstrators “insurrectionists” was a disgusting touch that might have had those 1960s-era white clergymen, clueless as they were back then, shaking their heads.

It’s ironic that Tennessee is one of many states peering into a microscope for any sign that classroom lessons on race might cross some vague line, after a law forbidding discussion of so-called divisive concepts was signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in 2021. A chapter of “Moms for Liberty” didn’t spare a book about King from its wrath.

The actions by Republican lawmakers in Nashville prove that more, not less, teaching on the truthful history of America and Tennessee, birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, is sorely needed because, clearly, they haven’t learned a thing.

Trying to make uncomfortable truths go away by admonishing and punishing those who bring them into the light has never worked for long.

The fact that three adults and three children at a Christian school in Nashville had been murdered by an assailant wielding a semi-automatic weapon seemed to disappear as GOP members of the Tennessee General Assembly took turns dressing down the “Tennessee Three,” reaching for the most condescending words in their vocabularies.

“Just because you don’t get your way, you can’t come to the well, bring your friends, and throw a temper tantrum with an adolescent bullhorn,” Republican state Rep. Andrew Farmer said to Rep. Justin Pearson. He responded by deriding Farmer’s tone: “How many of you would want to be spoken to that way?”

Better to have listened rather than lectured, and felt the urgency of colleagues who do not look like them, who have backgrounds as activists, who were elected overwhelmingly by constituents, tens of thousands of them, who were stripped of representation when the lawmakers had their microphones cut off, their IDs invalidated and their bodies, finally, cast out.

Better for the legislators from a different political party to have learned from them, and from parents and children in the galleries and outside the chambers.

The third member of the trio, Rep. Gloria Johnson, a teacher, recalled seeing students fleeing a shooting at her school in 2008. She honored the names and memories of those killed at Covenant School. Johnson, spared expulsion by a single vote, unlike the two she stood alongside, is a white woman in her 60s. Just let that sink in for a moment.

And remember, since most of the GOP legislators hypocritically rolling in moral high dudgeon did not, that the disgraceful scene took place in the week of the 55th anniversary of the murder of King by an assassin’s bullet — across the state in Memphis.

What did they accomplish with the swift move? Well, after the events of last week, three state legislators whom few outside of their districts knew much about have had their profiles and causes elevated.

'Built on a protest'

Pearson sounded more preacher than politician when he said: “You are seeking to expel District 86's representation in this House — in a country that was built on a protest,” adding: “In a country built on people who speak out of turn, who spoke out of turn, who fought out of turn to build a nation. I come from a long line of people who have resisted.”

The expelled Democratic Rep. Justin Jones was equally eloquent when he asked: “How can you bring dishonor to an already dishonorable House? How can you bring disorder to a House that is out of order, where the speaker refuses to let representatives elected to speak for their people even be heard?”

Their fight recalled the legacy of King, who traveled to Memphis to raise the voices of that city’s neglected and disrespected sanitation workers, toiling in dangerous conditions for low pay.

The world has also learned about the members of the Tennessee legislature’s Republican caucus, predominantly white and male. Past comments about bringing back “hanging by a tree” as a method of execution, charges of criminal and sexual misconduct and persistent instances of reflexive racism have not been enough to earn the expulsion handed to Jones and Pearson.

Now, Jones is back after the Nashville Metropolitan Council voted on Monday to return him to his seat as “interim” representative before a special election is held. Though he drew the attention and visits from national Democratic leaders, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, he did not really need their words to craft a way forward.

Upon his return, speaking from the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol, Jones said: “Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence.” After a vote is held in Shelby County, Pearson may not be far behind.

But how much will politics as usual really change?

With gerrymandered districts and a supermajority that can do pretty much what it wants, Tennessee Republicans may not be worried about their power slipping away, not anytime soon. In states throughout the country, with blue dots of cities overwhelmed by surrounding red, any meaningful political swing would certainly be an uphill battle.

But I have a feeling the young people who crowded into the Capitol and the elected officials who echoed their concerns are hardly going to shut up.

Mary C. Curtis is an award-winning columnist for Roll Call and hosts its "Equal Time" podcast host. She is a contributor to NPR and The Op-Ed Project.

Reprinted with permission from Roll Call.

Obama Takes Immigration Reform Campaign To Nashville

Obama Takes Immigration Reform Campaign To Nashville

By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Barack Obama flew to a red state with a growing immigrant population Tuesday to sell his controversial actions delaying deportation for millions of people living illegally in the U.S. as a “net plus” for local economies and communities.

In a small, packed room at a community center here, the president acknowledged the heated debate over his move and argued that cities like Nashville would benefit from the youth, vitality and diversity that immigrants bring.

“Generation after generation, immigrants have been a net plus to our economy and a net plus to our society,” Obama said. “We can’t deport 11 million people, and it would be foolish to try — as well as, I think, wrong for us to try.”

The visit was Obama’s third stop in recent weeks on a campaign to promote his plan to temporarily ease the threat of deportation for nearly 5 million people, about half of the 11 million or so people in the U.S. illegally. The president’s tour has a dual purpose: shoring up his program against critics who’ve dubbed it an abuse of power and ensuring the program gets off the ground without the sort of self-created troubles that dogged last year’s launch of his landmark health care law.

In the series of speeches, the White House is returning to its preferred political strategy of going outside the Washington Beltway to try to rally backing from community leaders.

In Nashville, Obama highlighted Mayor Karl Dean’s efforts to incorporate new arrivals through a new city Office of New Americans, noting he’d created a White House task force with a similar aim.

Obama argued he was pushed to take executive action after months of delay on immigration legislation in Congress. He pitched his plan as a boon to the economy, even in communities far from the immigrant hubs of Los Angeles, New York and border towns. Nashville has seen thousands of immigrants from Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa settle here in recent years, drawn by the region’s relatively strong economy and affordable housing. Foreign-born residents now make up about 12 percent of the population in the Nashville area.

Obama’s trip Tuesday offered a flavor of the impassioned debate he is diving into. As Obama spoke at Casa Azafran, an outreach center that assists immigrants with social services, supporters outside held a large banner reading, “Gracias Obama.” Steps away, protesters waved signs reading, “Defund amnesty” and “Obama is killing America.”

“More than 200,000 Tennesseans remain out of work, but rather than prioritize their plight, the president is putting the interests of those who have broken our laws ahead of them,” U.S. Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) said in a statement before Obama’s arrival. “This is wrong, and the president does not have the authority to change our immigration laws without Congress.”

Obama acknowledged his critics, at times casting them as misguided and fearful of change or brushing off their concerns with a few lighthearted jokes.

“They’re pretty sure I’m an illegal immigrant,” Obama said of some critics, adding quickly, “That was a joke.”

While Obama continues his speaking tour, White House officials have fanned out around the country for briefings with mayors, immigrant advocates, community officials and church leaders. Cabinet secretaries, too, will join the road show in the coming weeks, and celebrities are being recruited promote the programs, according to a White House official, who outlined details of the effort on condition of anonymity.

The official said Homeland Security Department officials planned more than 100 public education meetings in December, even before applications become available in the new year. The goal is to spread, in a community often targeted by scams, accurate information about costs, timing and eligibility.

“We are gonna make sure that families, people who are, you know, working and responsible in their communities, are not prioritized for deportation,” Obama said in an interview with Telemundo, according to a transcript. “So the likelihood of their deportation’s gonna be much lower.”

At Casa Azafran, Obama took several questions from the group of mostly advocates and others affiliated with the community center, at times trying to relieve worries that a future president might undo his temporary reprieve and leave those who’ve registered for the program suddenly subject to deportation.

Obama said he was confident that such a move would be so unpopular, no future administration would try it.

If effective, the campaign may also help mobilize much-needed defenders of the most controversial executive action of Obama’s presidency.

More than a dozen states have filed a lawsuit challenging Obama’s actions, and Republicans in Congress are looking for ways to block it before it gets off the ground. Congress was moving toward a deal Tuesday to fund the government through September, but pull the plug in mid-February on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the nation’s immigration and border patrol agencies.

The White House has criticized the maneuver but has not issued a veto threat.

AFP Photo/Ethan Miller