The Ballad of the Justins
How long can this sordid history keep repeating itself?
Rev. Henry McNeal Turner
Issue #301 OpEd April 17, 2023
Take a look at this quote:
“You may expel us, gentlemen, but I firmly believe that you will someday repent it. The Black man cannot protect a country, if the country doesn’t protect him; and if tomorrow, a war should arise, I would not raise a musket to defend a country where my manhood is denied … You may think you are doing yourselves honor by expelling us from this House, but when we go … we will light a torch of truth that will never be extinguished … When you expel us, you make us forever your political foes.”
If you think those words were spoken by either Tennessee State Representatives Justin Pearson or Justin Jones, the two now-globally renowned brothers who earned their fame by standing up for their constituents who demanded action from their elected officials on gun violence following the slaughter of three schoolchildren and three adults, that would be incorrect. As a matter of fact, if you’re thinking these flaming hot words were uttered by anyone from this century - or the last? Wrong again.
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The man who spoke these words was Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, and I learned about him just recently from an excellent opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer, appropriately entitled, Justin Pearson and Justin Jones aren’t the first Black lawmakers expelled from state bodies. I would love to pose as if I had known all about this man all along, but I don’t mind admitting when I don’t know what I don’t know. And in these times, warriors and words such as these are important to know.
After the Civil War came the Reconstruction era, and Turner became involved in politics as a Republican in the state of Georgia. This wasn’t the Republican Party of today. In the 1860s, Republicans were the antislavery party, and Turner’s political ideology more closely aligned with the Rev. Raphael Warnock than the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Southern Democrats of this era were the forerunners of the current Republican Party.
In July 1868, Turner was elected to the Georgia state legislature, along with more than two dozen other Black representatives. These were some of the first Reconstruction-era Black elected officials in the former Confederacy, the first to represent the interests of Black constituents. However, less than two months later, Georgia Democrats — who held the majority of seats — expelled Turner and all the other Black members.
It was in September of 1868 when Turner wrote those words. Damned near two centuries ago.
Reconstruction was this country’s first attempt to set right the sins of slavery by taking steps to include Black people (well, Black men) as full citizens who had the right not only to vote but to be elected to represent other Black people. Considering this came right behind slavery, it was nothing short of amazing.
It was also very short-lived, followed by decade upon decade of every bloody, brutal attempt imaginable to return Black people to their inferior, servile status as slaves. And that wasn’t too amazing at all. I’d say that was predictable, and much more in character with who America really is. And if you think this isn’t who America really is, you either haven’t been paying attention or you are purposely wearing blinders. The mountain of evidence could nearly block out the sun.
Those ugly and perverted decades led us to where we are today; at the starting gates of a second Civil War, because that war never really ended and the South never completely lost. I would argue that if the Civil War had truly and conclusively been won, then Trump would not have been elected President of the United States immediately following the two-term victory of President Barack Obama.
And the January 6 insurrection? Where the Confederate flag was waved boldly inside the U.S. Capitol building for the first time in American history as a symbol of what would never be forgotten by Trump’s white nationalist followers who are now the Republican party’s standard bearers? That would have never happened either.
Sure. There has been progress for Black people. I’m well aware of that. It was old white men who expelled the Justins from the Tennessee Legislature, but it was a white woman colleague who stood with them and it was white people who voted to return them to their posts to represent their people - backed by an army of angry supporters, many of whom were also white.
I’m not ignoring that.
But I’m also well aware of just how fragile our situation is - and will always be. Keep in mind that for the majority of American history, America has been enemy territory for Black American citizens. And for too many of us, it still is.
Just how long you figure that can last? And how do you figure it has persisted this long?
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