Tennessee Democrats Burn Paper Confederate Flag, Blame Jim Crow 2.0, Protest Congressional Redistricting

By Carole Hornsby Haynes        May 16, 2026 

As a native Memphian from a very large family of cousins, I am always alert to events and stories about Tennessee. 

I am so proud that it was a Tennessee GOP leader who smacked down radical Democrats in a display of political terrorism as they tried to block a legislative meeting.  House Speaker Cameron Sexton proved that the Volunteer State will not tolerate such irrational behavior. He stripped every member of the House Democratic Caucus of all standing committee and subcommittee assignments following their outrageous conduct during a recent special session on congressional redistricting.  Their offenses? 

Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson led a protest against congressional redistricting, locking arms in the well of the House chamber, blocking proceedings, and coordinating with protestors in the gallery who blasted air horns and noisemakers in an orchestrated attempt to drown out the vote.  Representative Jones burned a paper replica of the Confederate flag inside the Capitol. When state troopers tried to make arrests and clear the chamber, they were attacked. 

Both Jones of Nashville and Pearson of Memphis were expelled from the same chamber in April 2023 for disrupting House proceedings with a bullhorn after being denied the floor. Their protest was over gun laws following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville that claimed nine lives. Both were reinstated. Both were reelected. 

On May 7, 2026, they threw the same theatrical hissy fit for the national media, claiming that the congressional redistricting is a “racial power grab” and “Jim Crow 2.0” that dilutes minority voting power. 

The fact is that the map eliminates the state’s lone majority-black district in Memphis (in Shelby County), carved out under decades of race-based mapmaking, and redraws lines to better reflect Tennessee’s overwhelmingly conservative electorate.   

The community that Pearson represents will not be silenced by redistricting. They have silenced themselves by not showing up at the polls. They have diluted their own political power by not exercising their right to vote. Republicans -- and whites -- cannot be blamed for their failure to exercise their Constitutional rights. 

In the 2024 election, Shelby County had 604,353 registered voters which represents about 92% - 93% of eligible adults. Yet the voter turnout decreased nearly 30% from 2020: 94,598 ballots cast in 2024 down from 270,151 ballots cast in 2020. 

This is not the story that Jones and Pearson want the media to hear. 

Setting fires in the State Capitol is arson. Hijacking the Tennessee people’s House, disrupting a legislative session, defiance inside a government building, and resisting law enforcement are an open assault on the rule of law.

Democrats attempt to whitewash their political terrorism by demonizing the South and whites. They play the role of victim -- they are the oppressed and whites are the oppressor -- straight from the Marxist Critical Race Theory playbook.

By burning a replica of the Confederate flag and claiming“racial power grab” and “Jim Crow 2.0,” the black Tennessee representatives intended to denigrate the South and whites. They don’t want you to know that the North imported and sold slaves to the South and had over 429,000 of their own slaves as of the 1860 census. They don’t want you to know that Jim Crow – segregation – began in the North.

Democrats stage radical left theatrics to frighten the American people and hide their true agenda -- to move the country toward totalitarianism. It is critical that more GOP leaders follow the lead of Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and put a stop to the takeover of America.