About 30 people from an organization called the Nashville Student Organizing Committee held a brief demonstration in Legislative Plaza on Wednesday afternoon to protest Tennessee’s voter identification law.
Representatives for the group — made up mainly by students at Fisk University and Tennessee State University, according to an organizer — testified in favor of legislation that would have rolled back portions of the voter ID law. The measure was filed as an amendment to House Bill 2373, a caption bill filed by state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis.
The measure failed, with lawmakers offering to send it to have a study committee look at the question of whether students should be able to use their campus IDs at the polls. The group responded by breaking into the civil rights song “Can’t Turn Me ‘Round.” When asked to leave, they linked hands and filed out of the room, down the long corridor of Legislative Plaza and out onto Charlotte Avenue. There did not appear to be any arrests.
(The group can be heard — but not really seen — on the committee video below.)
The demonstration served, at the very least, to call attention to Hardaway’s legislation. They promised to be back at the Capitol will more such actions in the future.
