This is What We've Been Training For

Bending the moral arc of Tennessee in the wake of racialized political events, and looking back at from where we've come

The legislative body was gathering to do their work, moments before an important vote, when they were interrupted by a crowd of angry people. Far from a protest, the sounds of breaking glass could be heard amidst the angry yells, and the legislators soon found themselves literally under siege in their own chambers as a mob pushed past police and pounded on the heavy oak doors. 

It was July of 2001, and this was the state house in Nashville, Tennessee. The mob had been called up by then state-senator Marsha Blackburn and her cronies–right-wing radio host Phil Valentine among them–to prevent a bi-partisan budget bill that would create a state income tax in Tennessee. 

A small, oddly squashed shape on the northern edge of what could be considered the south, a state with only eleven electoral votes, could very well be an important bellwether for the nation. And yet, we often get very little if any national news coverage: most of what happens here has been ignored on the larger stages of con…