Editor’s note: This piece contains mention of suicide.

Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis) delivered the 17th annual Murray Lecture on Feb. 12. The event was co-sponsored by Residential Colleges and the Bishop Johnson Black Cultural Center.

Pearson has represented the 86th district of the Tennessee House of Representatives, which includes part of the city of Memphis, since April 2023. He became the third-youngest lawmaker in the Tennessee House of Representatives after a special election held in January 2023 to vote for the successor of former Rep. Barbara Cooper, who passed away in October 2022. 

Pearson and fellow representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives on April 6, 2023, after the two joined a protest for gun control on March 30 after the shooting at The Covenant School. Alongside Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), the three were dubbed the “Tennessee Three,” although Johnson was not expelled for joining the protest. Jones was reinstated on April 10, 2023, while Pearson was sworn in as an interim representative three days later. Pearson was recently reelected to the 86th district in November 2024.

Beginning the lecture

Before Pearson took the stage, Dean of Residential Colleges and Residential Education Melissa Gresalfi and President of Murray House Council Abigail Kwon, a first-year, introduced the representative and the Murray Lecture. The two spoke about the impact of Reverend Walter Murray, the namesake of the Murray Lecture, who was one of the first Black undergraduate students at Vanderbilt and the first African American to serve on the university’s Board of Trust.

Pearson began by speaking on the recent loss of his brother, Timphrance Darnell Pearson, to firearm suicide in December 2024 and the issue of gun violence in Tennessee.

“We have an epidemic of gun violence in our communities, and it is really imperative that we do everything that we can to help save anybody we can,” Pearson said. “I didn’t know what my brother was struggling with. We didn’t know about [the] mental illness that he had. You don’t know who’s struggling next to you or in your families.”

Pearson also shared the 988 suicide and crisis hotline with the audience, encouraging them to send it to as many people as possible and urging anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts to reach out.

“Send that number to your family chat and just be like, ‘Hey, Rep. Pearson told me to do this,’ because you don’t know who it could bless — who it could help, who it might save,” Pearson said.

In honor of Murray, Pearson structured his talk in the style of a church service through call and response with the audience. He also mentioned that Feb. 12 was the anniversary of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, who was born in 1809. Pearson discussed the importance of Black Americans to the history of the United States, building off of the historical context of the date.

“There would be no United States of America, because it was those 200,000 people — Black folks — who had just been considered as people, who were not deserving even of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness — who actually fought on the side of the union in order to preserve this very country that had denied them and their ancestors for centuries, life, liberty [and] the pursuit of happiness,” Pearson said.

Pearson then encouraged the audience to reflect on the legacy of the U.S., given the significant history of Feb. 12 in the country’s history.

“Here we are, and I am grateful to be spending it commemorating the legacy of Reverend Murray, whose commitment to the cause of freedom was not shackled by a historically white university [that was] preserving a status quo with symbols and ideologies in academia of white superiority and black inferiority,” Pearson said.

Call to action

Pearson called upon the audience to become more civically engaged, using a metaphor of his ancestors reaching out via telephone to encourage him and like-minded individuals to fight for social justice.

“We are being asked to do something, to give something, to sacrifice something, not for ourselves and our own benefit, not for more titles and more positions and more power, but for the tens of thousands of feet of those who shall follow us, whose names we will never know, whose faces we will never see,” Pearson said. “That is the calling, and it is difficult, but there are those who have done this.”

Pearson also asked the audience to consider how the current political discourse will impact future generations, particularly in the wake of the 2024 election.

“So where are we leading [future generations]? Are we leading them to towers made of gold filled with white supremacist domestic terrorists?” Pearson said. “Where are we leading them — to where billionaires are able to control the narratives of a nation and who are the levers of a government? Where are we leading them? Who shall follow us?”

Pearson brought up the concept of “dissenting,” saying that the audience must protest politics and policies they disagree with through whatever means necessary. He encouraged the audience to engage civically through door-knocking, phone banking and casting their ballots.

“We dissent [from] unjust practices with voter registration and making sure that the people who are around us who are eligible and able to vote do vote, and not just that they’re registered, but then we get them to the polls,” Pearson said. “We’ve got to dissent with our participation in the process. We cannot be side-liners to the injustices that are happening. We cannot be sad faces in front of laptop screens and iPhone screens saying, ‘Isn’t the news so bad?’”

Additionally, Pearson addressed the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Memphis, Tennessee, where security cameras captured federal agents detaining several employees from a TACOnganas food truck without showing identification.

“We’ve got to dissent when ICE agents are kidnapping people, like they’re doing in Memphis, wearing hoodies and covering their faces without proper documentation,” Pearson said. “We’ve got to dissent when race is used to separate Black folks and white folks. Instead of building a solidarity dividend, which is the only thing that can break the status quo, we’ve got to dissent.”

Building off of his call for dissent, Pearson called for compassion for one another to create unity in the face of division.

“We’ve got to build a movement for justice rooted in love. I believe that love is our most powerful tool against oppression. Love can’t be bought on the stock exchange, and you can’t be bought out of loving somebody,” Pearson said. “And we must keep our eyes on this if we are to build a movement for justice rooted in love that can unlock the potential of our state, of our nation and of this world.”

Pearson also spoke of boycotting companies that have rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion programs, such as Target, Amazon and Walmart. He also said he got his first Costco membership and now frequents the store for his purchases, given their support of DEI programs.

“I would rather keep my moral compass intact than support a system that I know is oppressing people,” Pearson said. “[We must] keep the vision of the world that we want — keep it alive in our hearts and turn that into practical action.”

Toward the end of his speech, Pearson pointed out the discrepancy in reparations in the United States for African Americans. 

“If you are an enslaver who lost your slaves — people you enslaved [and lost] due to the Civil War — you were compensated by this country. If you were a bank who lost money, particularly the United Kingdom, due to the war that ended slavery, you were compensated up until about 2014,” Pearson said. “Our society doesn’t have a problem with reparations. Our society has a problem with recognition of the harm done to those who are African American.”

Audience reactions

Following Pearson’s talk, attendees gathered in the Carmichael Great Room for refreshments and an opportunity to speak with the representative one-on-one.

Kwon reflected on the honor of introducing Pearson and speaking at the Murray Lecture.

“I thought I would be a lot more nervous, but seeing everyone who’s so supportive of this speech, who’s so willing to be there, really did cool down my nerves,” Kwon said. “I felt very grateful that I had the opportunity to speak at such a wonderful event.”

Sophomore Souadou Barry said she enjoyed Pearson’s speech and connected heavily to his message.

“I think I really needed to hear it. It’s been really hard since the election, especially as a Black student. You kind of feel like it’s time to just throw away the key and let things be,” Barry said. “But like [Pearson] said, ‘Answer the call for somebody else.’ I just really needed to hear that. That’s great for my mental health.”

Junior Rachel Johnson admired Pearson’s analysis of the modern era and his discussion of political reform, calling him “very authentic.”

“I feel like he was very spot-on on some of the things that Black people have been struggling with for centuries, especially at a [predominantly white] institution, that need to be called out, especially calling out certain higher-up figures that need to understand the impact that you have on certain minorities and certain other cultural communities, especially speaking for me, being of an immigrant experience,” Johnson said.