State, local and national faith leaders have laid out plans for a national day of action in Nashville on Monday in response to the expulsions of Democratic Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones from the Tennessee legislature.
The rally will feature child caskets to call attention to the effect of assault weapons on the bodies of children — and in an explicit nod to Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old Black teen brutalized in 1955 by racist violence in Mississippi. Till’s mother insisted on an open casket to show the world her child’s damaged body. Organizers said child coffins are intended to provide a visceral display of the impact of guns on children massacred in schools.
The “Moral Monday” rally at the state capitol will be led by Tennessee clergy along with national faith and civil rights leaders including Bishop William Barber II. A decade ago, Barber helped launch a sustained series of nonviolent protests inside the North Carolina state capitol each Monday to call attention to policies that affected poor and marginalized groups.
The Moral Monday actions have since spread to other states, attracting hundreds or thousands of people at each event. Plans for Monday’s action in Nashville call for a 2 p.m. teach-in at McKendree United Methodist Church, a 3 p.m. march to the state Capitol and a 4 p.m. rally outside the Capitol.
Barber, in a video call announcing the plans, left open the possibility for the kind of peaceful civil obedience actions inside the Tennessee Capitol that have led to arrests in other states during Moral Monday gatherings.
Barber and faith leaders also released an initial outline of a document they call “The Nashville Principles.” The document lays out a “moral vision to move the country forward at a time when extremists are using state capitols to make an end run around the U.S. Constitution and the heart of our democracy.”
“All across the country, and especially in the South, we’re seeing attempted political coups d’etat,” the initial draft of the principles said.
A final principles document will be released at Monday’s action, faith leaders said.
“This must be exposed,” the document said. “It must be challenged in a way that goes deeper than partisanship. Republicans, Democrats and independents must stand together to reclaim democracy. Legislators in these houses, when there’s an attempt to shut them down, must stand like the Tennessee Three and say, ‘we will not be silenced.'”
Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, was restored to his seat Wednesday by the Shelby County Commission. Jones, a Nashville Democrat, was restored to his seat Monday by the Metro Nashville Council and returned to the legislature the same day.
The expulsion hearings last week also included a failed effort to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Knoxville Democrat, and the three were given the nickname the Tennessee Three. The hearings have galvanized supporters for the three and brought national attention to the inner workings of the Tennessee State Capitol and its GOP supermajority leadership.
(READ MORE: Tennessee House Republicans expel 2 of 3 Democrats over guns protest)
Read more at TennesseeLookout.com.