Whoops! Entire House Co-Sponsors Resolution Honoring #TakeEmDown901 Leader

Oops, they did it again!

In this year's installment of "Hey, maybe you should read what you are voting for on the consent calendar before you vote for it," the entire House voted for — and signed on as co-sponsors of! — resolutions put forward by Rep. Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis) to celebrate four African-American women in Memphis who will be honored for their social justice work at the 110th Founders' Day Celebration of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. You know, exactly the kind of normal, generic resolutions put forth during every floor session, all passed together as one on consent. But because no one read the resolutions, the entire House Republican caucus inadvertently voted to honor a woman who led the push to remove Confederate statues in Memphis — statues that about half the caucus think should be put back on their pedestals, racism be damned. Now they want their votes back.

The irony here is that a similar situation happened last year, except in that case the entire House voted to honor Nathan Bedford Forrest without realizing it. Yes, the same Nathan Bedford Forrest — slave trader, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader — whose statue just came down in Memphis.

Here's what happened: On Feb. 26, the House voted 97 to 0 to pass Cooper's four resolutions. (Reps. Marc Gravitt and Curtis Halford, both Republicans, were absent.) One honors Terri Lee Freeman, the president of the National Civil Rights Museum. One honors Memphis City Councilperson Jamita E. Swearengen. One honors Shelby County Commissioner Deidre Malone, who's also the president of the Memphis NCAAP. And the fourth honors Tami Sawyer, the activist who led the #TakeEmDown901 movement, and there the problem lies.

To be clear, Pith thinks a resolution honoring Sawyer for all her activism, Alpha Kappa Alpha honors aside, is a worthy and noble endeavor. The state needs more people like Sawyer, who are passionately committed to making their communities better, more equitable places, whether or not it makes the white establishment uncomfortable. But had any member of the House GOP read the resolution, which states the following, it likely would not have passed:

WHEREAS, Tami Sawyer is the director of Diversity and Cultural Competence with Teach for America Memphis and a writer, speaker, and social justice and education advocate; she is a leader in Movement for Black Lives in Memphis and a TEDx speaker and has been featured in numerous local and national publications; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, Ms. Sawyer organized #takeemdown901, the successful movement to remove Confederate statues from Memphis's public parks; 

Yes, that's right. Not only did Sawyer take down Confederate statues, she also led the first Black Lives Matter protests in Memphis. And that is a stretch too far for House Majority Leader Glen Casada, who recalled the resolution honoring Sawyer from the Senate in a blink-and-you've-missed-it motion at the end of the floor session Monday. (The Senate will still vote on the other three resolutions Thursday.) Speaking to Pith on Tuesday afternoon, Casada said that members first of all had "concerns" about the resolution because it specifies "the successful movement to remove Confederate statues from Memphis' public parks."

"Since it's still in court, the removal wasn't accomplished successfully," Casada said.

Casada said that members also had concerns about Sawyer's involvement in BLM "because there have been a number of Black Lives Matter members who have recently advocated for shooting police officers, and we just don't know if it's appropriate to honor someone involved in that kind of thing."

It is, we suppose, possible that some BLM member somewhere has advocated for shooting police officers, although it sounds more likely to be a bit lifted from InfoWars. However, Sawyer most certainly has not called for violence against the police — rather the opposite, which is, you know, the entire point of the BLM movement, for cops to stop killing black Americans because they're black.

For what it's worth, Cooper did not try to sneak the resolution past anyone. It's not her fault GOP staff didn't know Sawyer's name (even though she ran against Rep. John DeBerry in the 2016 Democratic primary). This is unlike last year's scenario, in which Rep. Mike Sparks (R-Smyrna) hid the language praising Forrest in a resolution honoring a pastor who wrote a book about Forrest after a different resolution honoring both Forrest and Sampson Keeble (the first African-American elected to the Legislature) was shot down.

Although hypothetically the House could still pass the resolution honoring Sawyer a second time — or just leave it be, since they've already passed it — the likelihood of that is slim, which frustrates Cooper.

"Everyone in this country has a right to speak their mind, and Tami was only expressing her constitutional right," says Cooper via email. "She was deservedly recognized as a 2018 Social Justice Honoree, and it’s disappointing that some in this body don’t want to honor that award, but that is their constitutional right as well."

Sawyer, meanwhile, is taking everything in stride.

"I am humbled by Rep. Cooper’s resolution and honored that the state House originally voted unanimously to move that resolution forward. It is troubling that the same representatives who have vehemently opposed the local autonomy of Memphis and have passed legislation to protect the Confederacy and defund diversity initiatives in our state are now attempting to derail Rep. Cooper’s resolution," Sawyer said in a text message. "The work I have done in my community has been to bring equality and equity for all in Tennessee and has included the participation and support of people from all races across the county. The opposition to Rep. Cooper is not only disrespectful to her as a stateswoman but shows a clear lack of understanding of the work for racial equality."

Meanwhile, Sawyer is running for Shelby County Commission this year, and even if she loses that race, her involvement in Memphis and Tennessee politics is only getting started. And in the words of one famous Memphis native, "What goes around goes around goes around comes all the way back around."