After Justin Pearson led thousands in a March from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to the Shelby County Administration Building, the Board of Commissioners voted to send the ousted Democrat back to the Tennessee State House of Representatives.
The reinstatement comes two days after a Nashville Metropolitan Council vote to re-seat fellow Democratic State Rep. Justin Jones, and more than a week after Republicans expelled the duo for protesting gun violence.
“It’s a victory, but the fight continues,” Pearson declared to the throng of marchers and a large media contingent in Memphis.
Board members in Memphis remained concerned about GOP backlash, some fearing the state Republicans will react by taking funding from the city.
According to Shelby County Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery, some of those fears stem from the city and county’s past with the state.
He pointed to 2018, when the state stripped Memphis of $250,000 in funding for its bicentennial celebration in retaliation for Memphis taking down Confederate statues the year before.
