Filipino Black American legislator regains his seat after being expelled

Rep. Justin Bautista-Jones (center, white suit) took his oath of office on Tennessee's Capitol steps.

Nashville's Metropolitan City Council voted unanimously, 36-0, to reinstate Filipino American Justin Bautista-Jones to the State House of Representatives three days after he was expelled from that legislative body.

The unanimous City Council decision was a slap in the face of the state legislature that voted to expel jones and Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson, 27, for taking part in a demonstration calling for the legislature to enact gun-control measures after a mass shooting at a Nashville's private Covenant School that killed six people, three were 9-year old students.

After he was reinstated, Jones walked the few blocks to the Capitol, accompanied by thousands of his supporters. 

“Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence,” Jones told a crowd on the Capitol steps on Monday after he took his oath of office. “Today we send a clear message to Speaker Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge.”

“No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us; it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement,” Jones told the huge crowd. “Power to the people!” he concluded.

Jones, who grew up in Oakland, Calif., is of Filipino and Black descent. In an interview published in Positively Filipino, an online magazine, he said he was inspired by his lola's stories about the People Power protests that ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. 

Jones' fellow legislator, Pearson will likely be reinstated as Memphis' state representative Wednesday (April 12).

A third legislator who supported the demonstrators, Rep. Gloria Johnson, was also supposed to be expelled but not enough her peers voted for her expulsion. When asked why she was not expelled, the White legislator said, "It may have something to do with the color of my skin."

All three legislators, dubbed the Tennessee Three by the media, were present on the  weekend talk shows.

Jones’ return “just felt right,” Johnson told “CNN This Morning” today. She stressed the need for “young, passionate voices” like Jones’ and Pearson’s who are willing to fight for their constituents.

“It was so good to have him back in the body,” she said, “overwhelmingly supported by not only his district but every district in Davidson County.”

“This is one of the greatest tactics of voter disenfranchisement and voter oppression that I’ve ever witnessed,” Pearson said on ABC’s This Week. “The reality is we have a super-majority Republican legislature that doesn’t want to see progress, that prefers to listen to the NRA rather than the constituents.”

Jones, Pearson and Johnson said they would continue to introduce gun control measures to the GOP-dominated House of Representatives.

INSTAGRAM / KAMALA HARRIS

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, met  left ,to right: Rep. Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.

The events in Tennessee and the subsequent expulsions brought national attention to the state, including a visit from Vice President Kamala Harris, who spoke Sunday at Nashville's Fisk University, an historically Black university.

“We are here because (Jones, Pearson and Johnson) and their colleagues in the Democratic caucus chose to show courage in the face of extreme tragedy,” Harris said, 

“They chose to lead and show courage and say that a democracy allows for places where the people’s voice will be heard and honored and respected.”

“We have to be honest and transparent that race plays a huge part in a lot of the decision-making that happens not only in this state, but in other states,” Harris said said in her fiery address. “To cut off somebody else’s belief and ability to fight for their people is wrong. We live in a country that is built on democracy, and I would hope that we will one day get back to that place.”

“No expulsion, no attempt to silence us will stop us; it will only galvanize and strengthen our movement,” Jones told his supporters after taking his oath of office in Nashville Monday. “Power to the people!” he exhorted prompting a roar of approval.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Filipino American legislator expelled from Tennessee House of Representatives

Filipino American Justin Jones (in white suit) was led out of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

 

Justin Jones, one of the two Democratic lawmakers expelled by Tennessee's GOP-dominated Legislature, says his activism was inspired by his lola's stories about People Power demonstrations that ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Jones, along with fellow Black legislator Justin Pearson, were expelled by the state House after the two expressed their support for the thousands of protesters calling for gun control following the mass shooting at a Nashville school that claimed the lives of six people, including three 9-year old students.

A third legislator, Rep. Gloria Johnson, a White lawmaker who also joined the demonstrators, failed to garner two-thirds vote required for her removal. Asked why the two Black legislators were expelled and she was spared, Johnson said, "It might have something to do with the color of our skin."

Jones’ lola is Ibanag and his lolo is Aeta, indigenous Filipino peoples native to Luzon, according to an essay written by Sonoma State Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel in Positively Filipino, an online  magazine catering to Filipino Americans. 

It was in Oakland, California, where he was raised that he began his political activism, taking part in social justice protests against the murders of Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin. He  moved to Nashville to attend Fisk University, a historically Black university.

The 27-year old Jones, who was sworn into office in November, 2022, attributes his political activism to his lola's stories about the People Power revolution in the Philippines and the stories from his grandmother on his father's side about the US civil rights movement.

“My Filipina Lola Tessie and my Black Lola Harriet are my first divinity teachers, first theology teachers, first spirituality teachers," Jones tells Strobel. "I realize now that the family stories they told me about their childhood in the Philippines and in Chicago and San Francisco carried their indigenous roots.”

After being kicked out of the House of Representatives Thursday, April 8, Jones said, "There are crimes against democracy happening in Tennessee being led by House Speaker Cameron Sexton,"

"They killed democracy in Tennessee…Their action was meant to intimidate. It was meant to humiliate, but what it did was put the state of Tennessee on trial for the world to see," he continued.

"We broke House rules, but we were obedient to our oath," Jones admits. "I think that what we did was the only human response to a community grieving. It was the only human response to the thousands of young people who were at the Capitol saying, 'please do something. Please hear us. We don't want to be shot or massacred in our schools. Enough is enough.'"

The ousted lawmaker added, "What is wrong is to be silent."

On Monday, April 10, the Nashville City Council angry at Jones' expulsion, is expected to reappoint Jones to be the represent the district in Tennessee's House of Representatives.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.