Expelled Tennessee Lawmaker Claims Republicans Voted Him Out for Being ‘An Uppity Negro’

Justin Jones, one of the Black Tennessee state lawmakers who was expelled from his House seat Thursday, said racism played a part in his expulsion.

“I basically had a member call me an uppity Negro,” he told MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

Jones was expelled for taking part in a protest calling for gun reform in the days after the Covenant school shooting that killed three children and three adults in Nashville.

Legislators did not vote to expel Gloria Johnson, a White woman, but did vote out a second Black lawmaker, Justin Pearson. All three are Democrats.

“I mean, the nation, the world was watching Tennessee, which is why they were on their best behavior,” Jones said of his Republican colleagues. “But even under their best behavior, you saw the disdain, the arrogance… This is the behavior of our body even with the nation watching them, even with the world watching, you see the assault on democracy that happened in the most extreme example was my expulsion, because it’s not about me. It’s about the 78,000 people I represent. These young people, you know, one of the most diverse districts being silenced because they’re upset that we don’t fall in line to their narrative of what Tennessee should be and that’s a multiracial democracy.”

Reid asked Jones about one of “the most extraordinary moments” when he “had one member, the only non-White member in the House majority, lecturing you.”

She added, “There was another member you alleged said to you that you were a disgrace, and essentially called you uppity, but then wouldn’t do it when you put your phone up and said say that again on camera.”

“I mean, this is a very hostile environment, but more importantly, it’s hostile to democracy,” Jones said. “So what you see in there, they’re saying you should feel grateful to be here. They didn’t put me here, the people of my district put me here. That’s what they were trying to undo from the time I walked in in January, I was made to feel like I shouldn’t be welcome here because I led protests here. I was arrested in this building over 14 times trying to remove a KKK statute that we finally removed from this rotunda where we’re standing.”

Watch above via MSNBC.