The Tennessee House of Representatives took the unprecedented move of expelling Rep. Justin Jones (D – Nashville), a Vanderbilt Divinity School student, and Rep. Justin Pearson (D – Memphis) the body’s two youngest Black lawmakers. The resolutions passed in a party-line vote on April 6, while a resolution to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson (D.
Students Demand Action organizers estimate that 1,000 of the 7,000 attendees were Vanderbilt students, and Chancellor Daniel Diermeier reaffirmed university support of students’ right to protest in a community vigil on April 4.