Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond says seeing two young Black Democrats kicked out of the state house by their colleagues in Tennessee, is strangely similar to when the Georgia House refused to swear in the newly-elected Julian Bond over his opposition to the Vietnam War.
“It reminded me of my father’s life and experience when he first came into office at the Georgia House of Representatives, the year I was born, 1966,” Bond tells WSB’s Veronica Waters. He adds that all three men were “ousted because of their beliefs, the things that they espouse.”
Bond’s father, civil rights icon Julian Bond, won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965.
“All but a few members of the House refused to seat him, citing his opposition to the Vietnam War,” historians with the NAACP write.
The NAACP adds that after a district court determined the Georgia House had not violated Bond’s constitutional rights, “the case went to the Supreme Court, which overturned the decision and ruled 9-0 in Bond’s favor.”
Julian Bond went on to serve 20 years under the gold dome before heading up the NAACP for decades.
Now, the present-day actions of Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are striking a chord with Bond’s loved ones.
On April 6, two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives were ousted for their involvement in a protest on the House floor demanding stricter gun control.
Following last month’s deadly school shooting in Nashville, Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson joined protesters gathered at the State Capitol, leading a chant of ‘power to the people’. In response, lawmakers voted expel to Jones, 27 – one of the youngest members of the legislature – and Pearson, 28.
The GOP-led Tennessee House reinstated Jones on Monday and on Wednesday, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 to reappoint Pearson to the legislature.
Underscoring the similarities about what happened in the Tennessee House and what happened to his father, Bond says, “In my father’s time, it was the Vietnam War and of course with these two gentlemen, it is gun violence and common sense gun legislation.”
He goes on to point out that both issues “are draped in the same, similar heavy cloth when it comes to gun violence.”
With the number of mass shootings already approaching 150 so far this year in America, Bond calls it insanity to punish legislators who are trying to help.
He also contends it is past time to do something besides political posturing on gun laws: “Surely Americans, by and large, do need more mental health solutions. But it’s obvious, if a child is playing with matches, you just don’t scold the child – you take the matches away.”
Calling out the Tennessee Republicans muting Democratic colleagues by voting them out, Bond says they should be embarrassed. “It’s the tail wagging the dog,” Bond tells WSB. “In America, partisan politics are supposed to force compromise, not continue to create a divide in the country.”
“Partisan politics, racial dynamics are dinosaur instruments of the past,” Bond adds, concluding that “it’s time to step away from the politics of division. It’s time to value American values more than party values.”