words by charles brooks
A few months back, two Black state representatives, Rep. Justin Jones, (D-Nashville), and Rep. Justin Pearson, (D-Memphis) protested gun violence in Nashville, and was briefly expelled from Tennessee’s House of Representatives. They did return to office days later but they were forced to win “special” elections, months later to serve out their original terms.
Their brief expulsion drew nationwide attention to Tennessee’s racial and partisan politics, amplifying the ongoing tensions between Black Democrats and White Republicans there. The brief expulsion triggered a very public display of party loyalty amongst Black Democrats that quickly turned this show of racial politics into a political spectacle.
The bright lights and camera flashes surrounding this spectacle managed to dim attention or urgency around the Republican supermajority in Tennessee’s state legislature that enabled the expulsion. Taking advantage of the low hanging fruit in electoral politics – race and partisan politics, there was a massive marketing campaign catapulting the “Justin’s” into the limelight.
Now on the national stage, they hit the ground running on a media tour making stops on talk shows, speaking engagements along with a visit to the White House. The dollars flowed in as nearly $2 million was raised. Months after the expulsion, the “Justins” continue to enjoy their celebrity status as both were recently named to the Black Enterprise 40 under 40 list for 2023.
Meanwhile, we know in Congress the Republican party holds a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. But there’s a much different story to tell when you look at the state legislatures across the nation. For several years now, Republicans have been consolidating their control on the state level by steadily building veto-proof supermajorities. A veto-proof supermajority occurs when the political party controls the upper and lower chambers of the state legislature with a large enough margin – like a 2/3rd margin - to override a governor veto.
The party with supermajority control has the votes to fast-track policy priorities, disrupt legislative “business” by using various parliamentary maneuvers to block proposed bills or change committee assignments. In 2023, we’ve seen hostile legislation proposed or signed into law particularly in states with large Black populations such as Florida, Tennessee and Louisiana.
But the media-driven marketing campaign focused on the Justins’ and diverted our attention. The flat-lined state of Black politics practically guaranteed little attention will be paid to the 20 state legislatures across the country, including Tennessee, controlled by a Republican supermajority. Seven of these states with large Black populations such as Florida (17%), Tennessee (17%), Arkansas (17%), Alabama (26.8%), Ohio (13%) and Louisiana (33%). Only North Carolina (22%) has a Republican supermajority with a Democratic Governor.
In the following months, frustration and hand-wringing intensified after disappointing outcomes with recent elections in Louisiana, Mississippi and Houston. But there was no subsequent push to educate, organize or unleash Black folk around the country on city councils, school boards, community board meetings, and state legislature hearings.
In 2024, elections for state legislators takes place in 44 states along with thousands of seats up in state and local elections. But today’s political conversations are stuck on presidential politics, Biden versus Trump.
All of this points to a dead political infrastructure unable to address the needs of Black folks or respond to the Republican party, on a local, state or national level.
With the 2023 elections out of the way, the 2024 election cycle will be the third since the 2020 COVID pandemic emerged. With yet another opportunity to take a hard look at the political moment we find ourselves in. A look at today’s polls tell us a story of widespread political discontentment and dissatisfaction, pushing more people in favor of a third party. In one poll, 57% Black folk said the country is going in the wrong direction while 67% cited economic issues such as jobs, taxes or the cost the living as their priority issues heading into the election.
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While Black folk today are having serious political discussions on and offline, next years’ elections create an opening to amplify and extend those discussions. To talk about a political view beyond electoral politics that includes a vision of how we want to live - and how do we get there. Where the discussion sees voting and electoral politics as one of many tools to use to build a self-determined path. A chance to talk about developing and building the capacity to organize working class communities and neighborhoods across the country. To meet the challenges that surely lay ahead by self-determining a democracy that’s more participatory and oriented toward working people.
Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodward reminds us of the local roots of activism in their book, Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements in America, where they write, “…(local activists) reveal that the local is where the national and international are located—that national events and policy outcomes are driven by local movements and grassroots people—and that often, national mobilizations and even national organizations were created as a way to aid a local front…”
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