NASHVILLE, Tennessee. –
The Republican-majority Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday advanced legislation that would have prohibited local governments from paying to study or provide money for reparations for slavery.
The measure marked a rare defeat of a GOP-backed proposal initially introduced nearly a year ago. It easily passed the Republican-controlled Senate last April, but the legislation ultimately went into recess as the House was consumed by controversy over the expulsion of two black Democratic lawmakers for their participation in a pro-gun control protest since the plenary session of the House. That protest came after a deadly shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Interest in the reparations bill surged again this year, just as Republican lawmakers and Gov. Bill Lee was in the process of finalizing the removal and replacement of all members of the board of trustees of the state’s only publicly funded historically black public university, Tennessee State University. That sparked more outrage among critics who contend that Tennessee’s white Republican state leaders have long refused to trust black local leaders.
As the fallout from the TSU grew, House members appeared hesitant to hold a potentially explosive debate on reparations. The bill was briefly debated in the House of Representatives last week, but support was still unclear.
“The idea of studying reparations doesn’t take anything away from you,” Democratic Rep. Larry Miller, who is black and from Memphis, said during the brief debate on the House floor. “What is inside you to say, ‘Look, we can’t study our history?’ We can’t even talk about our history, we can’t even use local tax money to study it.’ “That’s so old-fashioned.”
In the end, House leaders waited until the final week of sessions to return to the measure. But as Republican Rep. John Ragan, the bill’s sponsor, approached the front of the House to begin his opening remarks, another Republican requested that the body “table” his proposal, a move that would effectively kill it for the year.
Nearly 30 Republicans joined House Democrats to introduce the bill, including Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
Before the vote, Ragan maintained that his bill was necessary, arguing that reparations advocates want to “take money out of our grandchildren’s pockets as punishment for the actions of someone else’s great-great-grandfather.”
“Is it correct to say that the faults of a small percentage of past generations should be borne by all Americans today? No. “It is never right to punish an innocent person for an act committed by another,” Ragan said Wednesday.
Under House rules, no other lawmakers were allowed to speak during the vote.
“We decided to move on and accomplish other things,” Sexton later told reporters. “You can always come back.”
Tennessee legislation began seriously considering banning reparations only after the state’s most populous county, which encompasses Memphis, announced it would spend $5 million to study the feasibility of reparations for descendants of slaves and find “actionable elements.”
The decision by Shelby County leaders was prompted by the fatal beating of Tire Nichols by deputies in January 2023.
However, the idea of banning repairs has emerged in other states.
A Republican Florida lawmaker proposed a constitutional amendment this year that would have prohibited state or local governments from paying reparations, but the measure did not pass. A Missouri Republican has introduced a bill that would prohibit any state or local government entity from spending on reparations based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation or economic class. It has not progressed to date.
Meanwhile, other states have moved voluntarily to study reparations, including California, New Jersey and Vermont.