A CITY council in Tennessee voted yesterday to send a Democratic lawmaker back to the state’s legislature days after he was expelled for disrupting a session with calls for stricter gun control laws.

Justin Jones and another Democratic colleague, both of whom are black, were expelled by Republican lawmakers last Thursday after they disrupted an assembly session, demanding stricter gun controls in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Nashville.

A third legislator who joined their protest – a white woman – was not removed, sparking accusations of racism around the case and fuelling anger among Democrats well beyond Tennessee.

President Joe Biden has invited all three lawmakers to the White House, while Kamala Harris – the first black vice president in US history – attended a rally in Nashville in support of the “Tennessee Three.”

The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted yesterday afternoon to send Jones back to his seat in the state legislature on an interim basis, pending a special election.

The seat that had been held by the other expelled black lawmaker, Justin Pearson, will be discussed tomorrow at a meeting of the Shelby County board of commissioners, news reports said. – AFP, April 11, 2023.