Tennessee Three Rep. Justin J. Pearson discusses the state legislature
Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2023 from District 86. He is among the “Tennessee Three.”
Three politicians that came in prominence in the wake of gun control protest in 2023 are set to speak at the 2024 Democratic National Convention this week.
Tennessee state Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were dubbed the Tennessee Three after Republicans sought to expel them from their seats in the Tennessee House of Representatives following a gun control protest last year in the wake of the deadly Covenant School shooting that killed six people, including three children.
The three are in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention and are expected to take the stage this week ahead of Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Tennessee Three are state Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. The three democrats gained names for themselves for standing together and supporting gun control after the Covenant School shooting.
All three House Democrats approached the podium between bills in 2023 without being recognized to speak and led protestors in the galleries in several chants calling for gun reform. This led to Republicans to call for their dismissal due to “disorderly behavior.”
When are the Tennessee Three expected to speak at the DNC this week?
Jones, Johnson and Pearson are expected to take the national convention stage on Thursday, Aug. 22. The time they will speak has not been announced at this time.
The convention will air live on its website, between 5:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. CT Thursday.
USA TODAY will provide livestream coverage on YouTube each night of the DNC. You can also watch it below.
What will the Tennessee Three be speaking about at the DNC?
Jones, who represents Nashville, told CNN the trio will address gun violence in the country.
“Last year we were expelled for fighting for common sense gun laws, and the next day Vice President Kamala Harris came to Tennessee, sat in solidarity with us in our fight for democracy, in our fight to protect kids, not guns. That’s why I’m here,” Jones said.
Who is Gloria Johnson?
Johnson currently represents District 90 in Knoxville and is running against U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, for the incumbent’s U.S. Senate seat along with her Tennessee House of Representative seat.
She was first elected to the legislature in 2012 for District 13. Johnson lost her reelection bid in 2014 and again in 2016 by fewer than 200 votes each time to Republican Eddie Smith, but she became the comeback kid and won the seat back in the 2018 and in 2022 won reelection in the newly created District 90.
Johnson is a retired teacher. Born in Colorado, she moved to Knoxville as a child, graduated from Farragut High School and earned a bachelor of arts degree in education from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
Who is Justin Pearson?
Pearson became widely known in Memphis when he co-founded a grassroots organization called Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. The group was against a planned crude oil pipeline that was expected to cut through backyards in South Memphis, particularly in the Boxtown neighborhood.
He translated that leadership to a seat in the Tennessee legislature as one of the youngest representatives after the death of educator and state Rep. Barbara Cooper, who died in 2022.
A native Memphian, Pearson attended Mitchell High School, where he advocated for textbook access for students. He is also a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, where he majored in government and legal and education studies.
Who is Justin Jones?
Jones is also one of the youngest members of the Tennessee legislature as the House District 52 representative for part of Nashville in November 2022.
Before coming to the Tennessee Capitol, Jones was (and still is) a vocal advocate for free speech, voting access, Medicaid expansion and representation of working class and minority residents, and a critic of the Republican supermajority. He also led sit-ins and protests in 2019 calling for the removal of a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from the second floor of the Capitol. His advocacy and protest activity has led to his arrest several times as the Capitol that he now sits in helping to make legislation.
Originally from Oakland, California, Jones made his way to Nashville as a student at Fisk University in 2013 where he was a policy and activism fellow at the John Lewis Center for Social Justice. Activism has always been part of Jones’s life before coming to Tennessee and he continued that since coming to the state.
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Publish date : 2024-08-20 12:24:00
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