For weeks, the Tennessee State Capitol has been consumed by protests, as young activists express their fury at the horrifying status quo on gun violence, culminating in the dramatic (and some would say outrageously undemocratic) expulsion of two Black lawmakers who joined the demonstrations. Now, the digitally savvy young people powering the movement are using the megaphone of social media to keep national attention on the tension. They say they won’t be silenced—no matter how fierce the backlash.
“This has been the ramping-up of continuous action by this legislature that silences young and Black and brown voices in Tennessee,” said Ezri Tyler, a 19-year-old freshman at Vanderbilt University and a national organizer with March for Our Lives, a student-led protest organization focused on gun safety.
In a depressing sign of how many young people have come of age in an era of mass gun violence, Tyler cut her teeth in the movement after organizing a walkout at her Arizona middle school following the Parkland shooting in 2018. This month, she helped organize citywide school walkouts in Nashville. Still, she says, this feels like a turning point. |
