Tennessee lawmaker defends profanity-laden confrontation with state troopers: 'Jim Crow 2.0'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, May 11, 2026

A Democratic state representative who represents the Memphis area in the Tennessee House of Representatives recently defended his profanity-laden confrontation with state troopers last week in the Tennessee statehouse.

State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, a 31-year-old who has been a state representative since 2023 and is now running for a Tennessee congressional seat, told MS NOW host Al Sharpton on Sunday that his interaction with state troopers came amid America's era of "Jim Crow 2.0."

Pearson went viral last Thursday for cursing out Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers who had been called to clear protesters from the House gallery amid a tense special session on redistricting in the state. The chaos led to the fire alarm being pulled and parachutes being thrown from the gallery, according to local outlet WKRN.

Footage of the heated exchange between Pearson and officers shows him appearing to shield his brother, who was reportedly one of three protesters who were taken into custody for continuing to disrupt a session of the House of Representatives despite repeated warnings.

"My brother ain't doing nothing to nobody. Hey, hey, he'll walk out by himself. Move the f— back!" Pearson told the troopers. "What the f— is wrong with you?"

Pearson also got into the face of one of the troopers, calling him "boy" and a "stupid motherf—er," according to the video. He subsequently took to social media to blame the arrests on "tyranny" and "white supremacy."

Pearson's behavior prompted a call for his arrest from Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., a Christian who represents the Knoxville area in Congress.

Speaking with Sharpton about the incident on Sunday, Pearson explained that the three people arrested last week had connections to him.

"So the state troopers were kicking everyone out of the gallery. My brother and two of our friends and family, really, Lauren and Allison, refused," he said. "They stayed seated in the gallery. They weren't being a disruption, and the speaker of the House had commanded, in essence, that the troopers remove everyone."

"I said that I would walk my brother down after some troopers had hemmed him up, and the supervisor had agreed to that, but one of the troopers refused to listen," he continued.

Pearson went on to liken the situation amid the redistricting battle in Tennessee, which carved up the majority-black district around Memphis, to the era of Jim Crow. Republican Tennessee Gov. Brad Little signed what critics have called a GOP gerrymander into law last week following the special session.

"And this is what happens in this moment and era that we're in, of Jim Crow 2.0, where white supremacy believes that it can exercise its power and authority over us, denying us agency over our own bodies," Pearson said. "But now, my brother was detained with Allison and Lauren, but they all are out, and they’re continuing the fight."

Since first being appointed to the Tennessee House of Representatives by the Shelby County Commission to replace a state representative who had died, Pearson has repeatedly featured in some of the state's political battles.

Pearson, whose father pastors Community of Faith Christian Church in Memphis, identifies with "Liberation Christianity" and has appealed to the Bible to defend his political positions on issues such as gun control, social justice, LGBTQ+ ideology and resistance to what he sees as political persecution.

Shortly before he and two other Democrats were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives in April 2023 for participating in a gun control protest in the House gallery, Pearson likened his expulsion by the Republican supermajority to the crucifixion of Christ.

"I remember that, on Friday, the government decided that my savior, Jesus — a man that was innocent of all crimes except fighting for the poor, fighting for the marginalized, fighting for the LGBTQ community, fighting for those who are single mothers, fighting for those who are ostracized, fighting for those pushed to the periphery — my savior, my black Jesus, He was lynched by the government on Friday, and they thought that all hope had been lost," he said.

Pearson was unanimously reinstated by the Shelby County Commission less than a week later and won a special election to retain his seat that August.

Pearson also made headlines in March when he invited Michael Eric Dyson, an ordained Baptist minister who serves as distinguished professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University, to deliver a politically and racially charged invocation.

Lawmakers began streaming out of the chamber as Dyson railed against "white Evangelical piety" and called President Donald Trump a tyrannical "callus on the heel of American government."

Footage of Pearson recently delivering an impassioned high school commencement address at the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering also went viral on Monday, prompting some to contrast his erratic delivery in Memphis with decade-old footage of him using a different dialect when he was running for student government at the highly selective Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.