Democrat Gives Defiant Speech Before Expulsion From Legislature for Protesting ‘In a Country That Was Built on a Protest!’

Rep. Justin Pearson delivered a defiant speech ahead of a vote on whether to expel him from the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Despite the fiery speech, the House did just that.

Pearson was one of three Democratic lawmakers facing expulsion votes on Thursday after they joined a protest inside the statehouse last week after three children and three adults were gunned down at a Nashville elementary school. The protestors called on the Republican-controlled legislature to enact gun restrictions.

Rep. Justin Jones, who used a bullhorn at the protest, was the first to face such a vote. He was expelled by the requisite two-thirds majority needed. The vote to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson failed by one vote.

Before the vote to determine his political fate – for now – Pearson shredded his forthcoming removal:

Dr. King taught us that sometimes there’s a consciousness above rule, above what you might say is law – and that the true forms of protest is nonviolent disobedience. For less than a few minutes, we and you are seeking to expel District 86’s representation from this House in a country that was built on a protest – in a country that was built on a protest!

You who celebrate July 4, 1776, pop fireworks and eat hot dogs. You say, “To protest is wrong because you spoke out of turn, because you’ve spoken up for people who are marginalized, you spoke up for children who won’t ever be able to speak again, you spoke up for parents who don’t want to live in fear.”

Pearson went on say the United States was “built on people who speak out of turn.”

“I come from a long line of people who have resisted,” he continued. “I come from a long line of people who have fought injustice. I come from a long line of people who know what it means to face adversity and difficult days, who knows what it means to have words that mean something, that doesn’t call peaceful protesters ‘insurrectionists.'”

Watch above via C-SPAN and the Tennessee House of Representatives.