Black Indiana Lawmakers Face Republican Boos During Debate
Lauren Chapman/IPB News
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Tempers flared among Indiana legislators during a debate Thursday when Black lawmakers were shouted down and booed by some Republicans and two House members had to be separated in a hallway.
Democratic Rep. Greg Porter of Indianapolis, who is Black, was speaking in the Indiana House against a bill allowing a rural, mostly white, St. Joseph County township to leave the South Bend Community Schools, which is about 60 percent Black or Hispanic, when he called the proposal discriminatory.
Several Republican members said loudly “no” and “stop,” after which Porter, who was wearing traditional African clothing in recognition of Black History Month, left the House meeting room.
Indiana Republican lawmakers shout down, boo Black colleagues speaking about discrimination Arika Herron and Kaitlin Lange, Indianapolis Star
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INDIANAPOLIS - Tensions flared at the Indiana Statehouse Thursday when Republican lawmakers shouted down and booed Black lawmakers during floor debate on a bill that some see as discriminatory.
Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, walked off the House floor after several Republican lawmakers loudly objected to his warnings of discrimination in House Bill 1367. Porter, a member of the Black caucus, said the bill would allow students in a St. Joseph County township to leave the South Bend Community Schools, which are racially diverse, to join a nearby school district that s smaller, more rural and made up primarily of white students.
Incident At Government Center: The Majority and Minority Factor
STATE HOUSE–Debate about whether a bill that allows a mostly white township in St. Joseph County to leave the South Bend Community School District is discriminatory, spilled over into the hallway at Government Center, Thursday.
News 8’s David Williams witnessed the incident and reported that Rep. Vanessa Summers (D-Indianapolis) was part of a small group of representatives who left the floor and went into the hallway when hissing and cat calls could be heard during Rep. Greg Porter’s floor speech about his experience as a Black man.
“Rep. Eberhart (Sean Eberhart, a Republican from Shelbyville) got upset. He thought I was talking directly to him. I was not. Then he called me a bitch,” said Summers. She said she was upset that it was tough for a Black representative to talk about the Black experience on the House floor.