NASHVILLE – Racial frustrations in the Republican-controlled Tennessee House boiled over for a second straight day Wednesday during floor debate on the state’s budget as black Democrats charged that they had no influence on the document and their constituents’ concerns are being ignored by the majority.
The triggering factor was a series of unsuccessful efforts by Democrats to amend the budget, which is being revised amid a collapse of state revenues created by the coronavirus.
One unsuccessful budget amendment sought to provide $3,500 to move the bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a pre-Civil War slave trader and early leader of the Ku Klux Klan, from the Capitol’s second floor to the state museum.
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“How many people of color – or black people to be succinct – had input that made it into the budget?” Rep. Antonio Parkinson, a black Democrat from Memphis, asked of GOP leaders. “I’m coming from a place of fighting for inclusion so that people who look like me can be included in this. Every single one that offered amendments was shot down.”