NASHVILLE - Upset Tennessee Black legislators are publicly airing a list of frustrations with Republican Gov. Bill Lee while condemning his fellow Republican, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, over reposting of a Facebook meme they charged encourages "vigilante-type justice" against the Black Lives Matter and antifa movements.
Leaders of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators said Wednesday that Lee ignored their efforts to meet with him on racial and social justice issues prior to an Aug. 12-17 special legislative session at which the GOP super majority rushed through a bill making it a felony for demonstrators to camp on state property.
Those convicted could spend up to six years in prison. Also, felons are barred from voting. Their action made national news.
During a nearly 90-minute conference call with reporters on Wednesday, caucus members, including Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, charged that Lee refused their entreaties to meet with him earlier this month on social and racial justice as well as other concerns.
The caucus is upset by actions of Lee and Republican majority lawmakers toward protesters encamped on War Memorial Plaza across the street from the state Capitol amid continuing national unrest over police brutality.
During the session, Republican majority lawmakers passed and Lee signed into law the bill targeting Black Lives Matter and other demonstrators who camped out for some 62 days.
Black Caucus Chairman G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, said Lee ignored the group's Aug. 2 letter in advance of the session. Among other things, they sought to meet with Lee and mediate between the governor and demonstrators prior to lawmakers' return.
"We believe that if the governor had taken advantage of the offer that the Black Caucus had put on the table to serve as a mediary between the governor and those who were demonstrating for the matters of justice and equity and equality that a lot of the problems that arose on the plaza could have been avoided," Hardaway said.
Lee further incensed Black lawmakers when he later said in response to questions at a news conference that he didn't respond to meeting requests because "we meet with those folks that are willing to work together to move forward."
The usually soft-spoken Hakeem told reporters that "quite frankly, I take it as a badge of honor that he didn't want to speak with me or the other legislators. I think it says to our community that we were willing to say to him things that made him uncomfortable. That's unfortunate that he was not willing to talk with us on issues of great concern.
"We are legislators," Hakeem added, "we represent at least 65,000 people ourselves. And to attempt to essentially disenfranchise those persons does not speak well in my view of the governor."
Hardaway said a meeting with Lee is now in the works.
Lee spokesman Gillum Ferguson confirmed that Thursday, saying the governor "plans to meet with them, we're just working on a date."
In a prior statement issued Wednesday, Ferguson said "the governor has met with the Black Caucus on numerous occasions during his tenure in addition to many one-on-one conversations with individual members."
Over the past few months, Ferguson said, the governor "has met with African American faith, community, and business leaders throughout the state to discuss access to capital, police reform and racial reconciliation efforts, among other topics, and he'll continue to do so.
"This should not be conflated with the governor's refusal to legitimize calls for an autonomous zone and defunding law enforcement or meeting with those who routinely defaced state property," Ferguson said.
The passage of the bill and Lee's signing it into law made national news.
"He took a 180-degree turn in terms of criminal justice reform," said Hakeem, a former Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole member who had been working with Lee on the issue. "We spent dollars, we spent time and effort on the promotion of criminal justice reform. Then he signs into law legislation that criminalizes protests to set a tone, to tell them, essentially, you need to be in your place."
FACEBOOK REPOST
Black lawmakers also denounced McNally's reposting over the weekend of a meme on his private Facebook page. It showed a photo of a seated man in fatigues with a military-style weapon and smoking what appears to be a cigarette. It's accompanied by a caption that reads: "Warning to BLM & antifa: Once you've managed to defund & eliminate the police, there's nobody protecting you from us. Remember that."
The Senate speaker later deleted it after it was was publicized and widely distributed by the Tennessee Holler on the advocacy group's Twitter account.
Hardaway said Black lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI organization to investigate the militia group, identified in the repost as "Painful Truths."
Sen. Brenda Gilmore, a Black Nashville Democrat, said she had texted McNally to "express to him how painful that was to Black legislators and Black citizens of Tennessee."
She said McNally replied he would "try to be more sensitive in the future."
But Hardaway said that's not enough, urging McNally to go further, saying "he puts us all at risk. ... These nuts out there are looking for encouragement, they're looking for cover and that's what happens when those of us in power who are in government are carrying out the objects, schemes, strategies of the white supremacists and those extremist groups."
The Painful Truths group later posted what it described as the photo of an armed, white 17-year-old identified as the person arrested Wednesday following the fatal shooting of two people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. The group's post defended the youth, saying he had been struck with a skate board.
McNally spokesman Adam Kleinheider said "anyone who knows Lt. Governor McNally understands he has no hate in his heart and would never threaten violence against anyone. Lt. Governor McNally opposes the anti-police ideology inherent in the BLM and antifa movements. On Saturday, a meme was shared on his personal page in a private post that pointed out the logical fallacy at the heart of the 'Defund the Police' movement.
"When it was pointed out the meme could be interpreted as an implicit threat, it was taken down," Kleinheider said.
While Black Caucus members haven't reached out to McNally, Kleinheider said his "door is always open to the Black Caucus."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.