A tireless activist for racial justice, Justin Jones garnered national headlines when he was expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2023 for protesting the priority of protecting guns over the lives of children after the Covenant School Shooting. The Nashville Metro Council voted to appoint Justin as the interim representative to his former seat where he continues to advocate for democracy protections, high-quality public education, environmental justice, and comprehensive healthcare.
Justin is also a Policy and Activism Fellow at the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University and is completing his Master of Theological Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance, with a forward by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.
Justin’s activism stems from the disparity he sees in his community, where many struggle to make ends meet while corporations profit. He fights for healthcare as a human right, relief from student loan debt, inclusive and safe communities, and the end of mass incarceration and for-profit prisons. Environmental justice, led by marginalized communities, is central to his mission.
Justin has been an activist since childhood. As a college student, he organized for healthcare and against racist policing and led campaigns for the expansion of Medicaid in Tennessee and the repeal of restrictive state voter ID laws. And he has confronted systemic racism in the halls of power and successfully challenged dangerous bills that sought to limit First Amendment rights of nonviolent protests. For almost a decade, he has been involved and spoken truth to power at the Tennessee State Capitol where he was elected to represent District 52 (parts of Nashville) in 2022.
Justin is a leader for the next generation and the next several to come, and is deeply embedded in a tradition of resistance that comes from his familial and movement ancestors who ground and guide his work. A visionary leader and a passionate and inspiring speaker, he brings past wisdom into present and future struggles, and advocates for collective freedom and a renewed South.