State Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) is facing punishment for her act of protest on the Senate floor during the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session redrawing the state’s congressional maps and eliminating the state’s only majority-Black district.
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), who presides over the Senate, sent Oliver a letter Wednesday saying she is reassigned from the Senate Government Operations Committee to the Senate State and Local Government Committee. The Government Operations Committee meets during the summer, while the State and Local Government Committee does not. Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) will take her place on the Government Operations Committee.
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The letter also states that Oliver will not receive per diem pay unless the General Assembly is in session or she is attending a standing committee — neither is expected to occur until the General Assembly reconvenes in January.
These punishments come as a result of Oliver’s actions on the final day of the special session. Oliver stood on her desk and unfurled a sheet reading “No Jim Crow 2.0” and “Stop the TN Steal” and sang.
“Each Democrat was allowed to speak for twenty uninterrupted minutes during the final floor debate,” McNally says in a statement to the Scene. “Senator Oliver was even allowed additional time to close after her allotted time. Despite that, she decided to stand on her desk while her colleagues gathered in the well without permission. It was a clear violation of Senate decorum and centuries of tradition. It was performative, childish, and beneath the dignity of this institution.”
In the letter, which Oliver posted on social media, her first name is misspelled as “Charlene.” Oliver responded by saying, “Next time, spell my name right.”
“I knew there would be consequences for standing up for what is right but there was never a question about which side of history I would stand on,” Oliver says in a statement posted online.
“Let me be clear: I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated. And I will never apologize for fighting for the Tennesseans who sent me to the Senate chamber. The actions I took on May 7th were not a violation of decorum. They were a direct response to a majority party that has systematically stripped Black communities of fair representation through gerrymandered, racially discriminatory redistricting maps. When the rules of the chamber are used to protect the powerful and silence the marginalized, standing on that desk is the least I can do.”
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The Senate’s five other Democrats, who gathered in the well on the Senate floor as Oliver protested, also received letters of reprimand, according to McNally’s office.
“As the most egregious offender, Senator Oliver received the most significant penalty,” says McNally, who is not running for reelection this fall after nearly 50 years in office. “But the reprimands issued to the others should also be taken seriously. I take them seriously and I am confident whoever follows me as speaker will as well.”
House Democrats also received punishment following acts of protest during the special session. House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) stripped many of Democratic representatives of their committee assignments.
