UPDATED: This story has been updated to reflect a House vote to table the anti-reparations bill.
The Tennessee House voted 52-43 Wednesday to defeat an anti-reparations bill despite the efforts by an East Tennessee House Republican to resurrect the measure.
Before introducing the bill, Republican Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge circulated a letter to colleagues seeking their support in passing House Bill 474 to stop counties from looking into reparations and disbursing money to those whose family members were enslaved.
The measure passed in the Senate on a 26-6 vote but got hung up in the House. Republican Rep. Sam Whitson called for a vote to table Ragan’s legislation.
In response, Ragan told the chamber that people shouldn’t be forced to pay for the wrongdoing of their ancestors. He pointed out that all Japanese shouldn’t be blamed for the bombing of Pearl Harbor and all Muslims shouldn’t be held responsible for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Ragan noted in the letter that state Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis brought him the bill and said he will not back down from resistance. He also accused opponents of “blatant bullying and immoral tactics.”
“Frankly, two opposition caucus members have unashamedly engaged in such, hurling repugnant insults and racial slurs in the “People’s House” – apparently without penalty,” Ragan’s letter says. “Regrettably, other members of their caucus have failed to demonstrate the moral courage to oppose such a degradation of our state’s great institution. In fact, some have even supported these actions openly.”
Ragan also said the press, “always hungry for salacious sensationalism and manufactured controversy,” blew the matter out of proportion, causing some lawmakers to consider support of the bill a threat to their re-election.
Democratic Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin J. Pearson of Memphis have been outspoken foes of the bill.
Pearson said shortly before the Wednesday vote, “I am hopeful that this racist bill will be tabled.”
Ragan’s letter asks Republican colleagues to vote their conscience and notes, “It is a good and just bill that helps Tennessee and deserves a vote.”
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