A direct line can be drawn between the Tennessee Three and Missouri’s Medicaid 23.
“We’ve seen this play before,†says Rod Chapel, president of the Missouri NAACP.
On Thursday, Tennessee House Republicans expelled two Black Democrats, and fell just short of expelling a white colleague, because the three participated in gun safety protests on the floor of the House following the deadly school shooting in Nashville.
Watching from afar, Chapel, an attorney, recalled the 23 pastors he represented in Jefferson City in 2016 — most of them Black — who had been handcuffed and charged with trespassing. They stood in the gallery above the Missouri Senate and sang, prayed and chanted to protest the refusal of Republicans to expand Medicaid, as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act.
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“Tennessee is following Missouri’s dangerous precedent in punishing Black people in positions of power for political speech,†Chapel says.
The Rev. Cassandra Gould was one of the 23 people arrested and charged with a crime that day. A jury would later find the pastors innocent of disrupting Senate proceedings but guilty of trespassing. There would be no jail time, and Gov. Jay Nixon later issued pardons.
“Do justice,†Gould and the other clerics had chanted back in 2016. “Have mercy.â€
It was similar to the message of Tennessee representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. They joined constituents demanding that House Republicans in Tennessee consider gun safety measures after three children and three adults were slaughtered in a Nashville private school. Whether it’s dead school children or vulnerable citizens who can die without proper health care, the issues are related, Gould says.
“Holy Week is a reminder that it gets worse before it gets better,†says Gould, who recently moved from ºüÀêÊÓƵ to Washington, D.C., and is a senior faith strategist with a national nonprofit, .
There is an “evil,†she says, in caring “more about the privilege of carrying a gun than the growing body count of innocent children gunned down at school; or the privilege of being able to exclude the most vulnerable from accessing healthcare in Missouri.â€
As if on cue, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft made the connection between Missouri and Tennessee on Thursday, as he announced his campaign for governor. He listed the state to the south as one that Missouri Republicans who have “failed to deliver†need to emulate.
In the past year, as he prepared for what will likely be a hard-fought Republican primary, Ashcroft has been busy burnishing his extremist bona fides. He has proposed a rule that would make it easier to ban books in libraries, testified in favor of anti-transgender bills and railed against drag queens.
“It is all connected,†Gould texted me Thursday night. “If all of the purveyors of fascism, racism, transphobia, anti-Black, anti-Asian, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim rhetoric are going to band together, the rest of us who are committed not just to democracy but humanity must move pass our religious, cultural, racial and political differences and engage in a solidarity movement for justice.â€
That was the game plan for the Medicaid 23. It took a while, but after the protest and trial, Missourians passed a statewide initiative in 2020 to expand Medicaid to cover hundreds of thousands more people living in poverty.
So, too, will the forces of good prevail in Tennessee, Chapel predicts. By expelling two Black representatives for daring to stand with constituents who are tired of seeing children mowed down in schools, Tennessee Republicans brought the gun safety fight to their state. An entire nation is now paying attention to their unprecedented and racist erasure of the democratic process.
“Congratulations to the Tennessee Three for taking the first step,†Chapel says.
When voters see “cowering politicians†using power to erase the voices of faith leaders, he says, the tide eventually turns against those who stand in the way of democracy.
“Justice,†Gould says, “will have the last word.â€
Rod Chapel was silenced during a House hearing, but he'll continue to advocate against discrimination.
Preachers and clergy from around Missouri advocated that the state Legislature expand Medicaid to thousands of poor people who need it.