Justin Jones: Biography, Age, Parents, Protests, Arrests, and Restoration to House of Representatives

Justin Jones is a politician and activist who has been recently in the headlines for his expulsion and restoration to the Tennessee House of Representatives. He was a member of the House for District 52 which represents parts of Nashville. Justin served in the House for a brief period from 10 January 2023 to April 6, 2023. On April 6, he was expelled for participating in a gun control protest inside the state capitol. The Republicans mentioned his act of protest as disorderly behavior and expelled Jones on those grounds. However, this led to a great commotion in the capitol and the Nashville city council voted to reinstate him to his seat on April 10, 2023.

Justin Jones’ Personal Biography

Justin Jones was born on 25 August, 1995, in Oakland, California to Christine Jones. No detail of his father is known to date. His mother put herself through nursing school to raise Justin and his sister. Jones holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fisk University and is currently enrolled at the Vanderbilt Divinity School. His mother is a Filipino while his father was a Black American.

Justin’s Political Career Highlights

Justin Jones announced his candidacy in Tennessee’s 5th congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in 2019. He stood against Jim Cooper in the 2020 elections but was unable to submit enough valid signatures to make the ballot.

Jones again ran in 2022 to succeed State Representative Mike Stewart to become a member of the Tennessee House for the 52nd district. In the primary election of the Democratic Party, Jones defeated Delishia Porterfield and went ahead to win the general election unopposed.

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Protests & Arrests

As an activist, Jones has participated in many protests and has even been arrested for them. In October 2018, Jones refused to leave a rally held by Marsha Blackburn and got arrested as a result. Then further in 2019, he was charged with assaulting a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives Glen Casada. Allegedly he threw a drink on Glen’s face and therefore got banned from the Capitol. The charges were later dropped by Casada. In the same year, Jones also campaigned for removing a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol. Nathan Bedford was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a group of white supremacist Americans who hate African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Muslims, etc.

After George Floyd was brutally murdered by a white policeman in May 2020, Jones organized a 62-day sit-in protest for racial justice outside the state capitol. Jones was again arrested for this activity and faced 14 charges, all of which were dropped later.

A protest was launched by Justin Jones along with fellow Tennessee State Representatives Gloria Johnson and Justin J. Pearson in March 2023. The protest was for gun control reform and was held after a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. Two black protesters Jones and Pearson were removed from the committees as a result. Johnson, who is white, was saved in the vote and did not face expulsion.

Reinstatement in Tennessee House of Representatives

Soon after Representative Justin Jones was removed from the House, the majority of Nashville’s Metropolitan Council came together for his reappointment. Jones was expelled on April 6, 2023, and on April 10 the council followed through on the reinstatement voting unanimously to send Jones right back into the chamber. 

After the expulsion of Jones, there was an uproar and many condemned this by stating it an extraordinary act of political retaliation. Protesters congregated at the Tennessee state capitol in support of all three Democratic members, and their expulsion was called racist. A meeting was then set by the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County to discuss an interim appointment to the vacant seat. Jones was reinstated to his seat by a unanimous vote of 36–0 and a special election will soon be held soon to select him for the seat.

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