(Left to right) Rep. Gloria Johnson, former Rep. Justin Jones, and former Rep. Justin Pearson leave the Tennessee State Capitol after the expulsion votes on April 6, 2023. (Reuters)

Following a tragic school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic state legislators in an extraordinary act of political vengeance for their participation in a protest demanding more gun control. By one vote, a third Democrat was narrowly sparred.

Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both of whom are Black, were expelled as a result of the divided votes, however, Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman, was spared from being expelled. Meanwhile, the Republican leadership denied that race was a consideration.

Following the result, yells and cries erupted from the audience in the visitors' gallery. People began chanting "Shame!" and "Fascists!" after having sat quietly for hours and having kept everyone who cried out while the proceedings were going on in the background.

The chamber has only occasionally employed banishment since the Civil War. Although most state legislatures have the authority to expel members, this practice is typically reserved as a sanction for legislators who have been found guilty of major wrongdoing and is not employed as a tactic against political rivals.

GOP leaders claimed that Thursday's steps were required to prevent creating the impression that protests by legislators disrupting House operations would be accepted.

Republican Rep. Gino Bulso claimed that the three Democrats had “effectively conducted a mutiny.”

At a rally that night, Jones and Pearson vowed to advocate for change once more at the Capitol the next week.

“Rather than pass laws that will address red flags and banning assault weapons and universal background checks, they passed resolutions to expel their colleagues,” Jones said. “And they think that the issue is over. We’ll see you on Monday.”

Here’s what we know

Last Monday, Jones, Pearson, and Johnson joined the hundreds of protesters who had gathered at the Capitol to demand the adoption of gun control legislation. The three made their way to the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn as the demonstrators filled the galleries and started chanting. Days had passed since the massacre at the Covenant School, a private school where three children were among the six fatalities.

Pearson told journalists Thursday that in holding the protest, the three had broken “a House rule because we’re fighting for kids who are dying from gun violence and people in our communities who want to see an end to the proliferation of weaponry in our communities.”

Recalling a day in 2008 when students ran toward her out of a cafeteria because a student had just been shot and killed, retired teacher Johnson said she was personally concerned about school shootings.

On Thursday, thousands of people gathered at the Capitol to show their support for Jones, Pearson, and Johnson. Outside the House chamber, they cheered and chanted loud enough to drown out the debate. As the group entered the room while holding hands, Pearson raised his fist during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Johnson also acknowledged that race was likely a factor in why Jones and Pearson were ousted but not her, telling reporters it “might have to do with the color of our skin.”

Commenting on the expulsions, President Joe Biden called them “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

“Rather than debating the merits of the issue (of gun control), these Republican lawmakers have chosen to punish, silence, and expel duly-elected representatives of the people of Tennessee,” Biden said in a statement.

Before the votes on expulsion, House members discussed more than 20 measures, including one pertaining to school safety that would have mandated that both public and private schools submit building safety plans to the state. Some Democrats criticized the law for failing to address gun control, claiming that it only addressed a symptom rather than the root cause of school killings.

Expulsion votes in the past have happened under distinctly diverse situations.

Due to allegations of sexual misbehavior stretching back to when he was a high school basketball coach three decades earlier, lawmakers were under pressure to remove former Republican Rep. David Byrd in 2019. Republicans chose not to intervene, citing the fact that he was reelected as the charges were becoming public. Byrd retired the previous year.

After Katrina Robinson, a Democrat, was found guilty of diverting around $3,400 in federal grant money to pay for her wedding rather than her nursing school, the state Senate expelled her last year.

The last time state legislators removed a member of the House was in 2016 when the chamber voted 70–2 to do so in response to claims that Republican Rep. Jeremy Durham had inappropriate sexual contact with at least 22 women during his four years in office.