Tennessee Democrats stripped of House committee seats over redistricting protests
By Steve Gorman
May 12 (Reuters) - The Republican speaker of Tennessee's House of Representatives on Tuesday stripped Democratic lawmakers of all committee assignments as punishment for their role in boisterous protests during last week's special session on redistricting.
The move came five days after the Republican-controlled Tennessee House approved a new congressional map dismantling a Black-majority district in the U.S. House of Representatives built around the predominantly African American city of Memphis.
Last Thursday's vote, likely to result in flipping the Democratic-held seat to the Republicans in November's midterm elections, came as several Southern states moved to leverage the recent U.S. Supreme Court vote that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The House floor vote in Nashville was met with raucous protests by activists yelling from the balcony of the visitors' gallery and from Black lawmakers who stood at the front of the chamber linking arms in prayer as protesters sounded air horns and chanted slogans against the new map.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tennessee-democrats-stripped-of-house-committee-seats-over-redistricting-protests-024156275.html