Justin Pearson and Justin Jones aren’t the first Black lawmakers expelled from state bodies

Philadelphia is a bedrock of Black history. For instance, the city is the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent denomination established by Black people. One of the AME Church’s famed leaders was the Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, who was ordained a minister a few short years prior to the Civil War.

Turner was a believer in the fight for freedom posed by the Civil War. Not only did he advocate for the use of Black soldiers during the war, but he was appointed chaplain for the Union army by President Abraham Lincoln, ensuring Black soldiers’ salaries reached their families and teaching them how to read.

After the Civil War came the Reconstruction era, and Turner became involved in politics as a Republican in the state of Georgia. This wasn’t the Republican Party of today. In the 1860s, Republicans were the antislavery party, and Turner’s political ideology more closely aligned with the Rev. Raphael Warnock than the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Southern Democrats of this era were the forerunners of the current Republican Party.

In July 1868, Turner was elected to the Georgia state legislature, along with more than two dozen other Black representatives. These were some of the first Reconstruction-era Black elected officials in the former Confederacy, the first to represent the interests of Black constituents. However, less than two months later, Georgia Democrats — who held the majority of seats — expelled Turner and all the other Black members. In September 1868, Turner told the Georgia legislature:

“You may expel us, gentlemen, but I firmly believe that you will someday repent it. The Black man cannot protect a country, if the country doesn’t protect him; and if, tomorrow, a war should arise, I would not raise a musket to defend a country where my manhood is denied … You may think you are doing yourselves honor by expelling us from this House; but when we go … we will light a torch of truth that will never be extinguished … When you expel us, you make us forever your political foes.”

“When you expel us, you make us forever your political foes.”

Last week, two Black men — Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives. Like Turner, Jones and Pearson were expelled for representing their constituents — in last week’s case, for joining protesters calling on legislators to enact stricter gun laws following a recent shooting at a Nashville school that killed six people. But this time, Jones and Pearson weren’t just acting on behalf of Black people, but on behalf of all those residing in their districts. To his colleagues, Pearson responded by saying:

“… and you are seeking to expel District 86th’s representation from this House in a country that was built on a protest. In a country that was built on a protest. You, who celebrate July 4, 1776, pop fireworks and eat hot dogs, you say to protest is wrong, because you spoke out of turn … You spoke up for people who are marginalized. You spoke up for children who won’t ever be able to speak again … You spoke up for people that we don’t want to care about. 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.”

That Black elected officials can be expelled for violating the sensibilities of white conservatives is dangerous, to be sure. And I suspect that most people who watched the expulsion of Pearson and Jones didn’t realize it had happened before — that they were failed by their teachers, and unaware of the connections between the past and the present. And that, to me, is equally — if not more — dangerous.

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The example of the Rev. Henry McNeil Turner is proof that the expulsion of Jones and Pearson wasn’t simply because they violated House rules. Like Turner in 1868, these men were expelled in 2023 for speaking up while Black. And yet, some communities are seeking to outlaw chapters of American history that could help young people make the connections between what we are experiencing today and what we have experienced in the past, so they can see it for what it really is.

After serving in the Georgia Senate, Turner lost hope that Black people could ever attain justice in the United States. He became a forerunner to Marcus Garvey, urging emigration to Africa for African people.

I haven’t lost hope yet. But if our teachers can’t give our young people the full story of American history, the country is doomed to repeat what it refuses to teach.

Rann Miller is an educator and freelance writer based in southern New Jersey. His Urban Education Mixtape blog supports urban educators and parents of children attending urban schools. Miller is also the author of the recently released book, “Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids.” @RealRannMiller