Justin Pearson

Justin Jamal Pearson (born January 7, 1995; ) is an American activist and politician. He is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 86th district, covering parts of the city of Memphis. He was elected in a January 2023 special election to succeed Barbara Cooper, who was posthumously re-elected in the November 2022 Tennessee House of Representatives election after dying in October 2022. When he was sworn into office at the age of 28, Pearson became the third youngest lawmaker serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives. He and fellow state representative Justin Jones were expelled in April 2023, for violating decorum rules by participating in a gun control protest on the House floor. He was reappointed by a unanimous vote of the members present at the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. Early life and education Pearson was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father was a preacher and his mother a teacher. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area while his father pursued a master's degree at Howard University. Four years later, the family returned to Memphis, where Justin was shocked by the contrast between his previous high school in Centreville, Virginia and his new school, which was conspicuously underfunded. At Mitchell High School in inner-city Memphis, Pearson became active in student government, lobbied for textbooks and Advanced Placement classes, and joined the debate team. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school class. In 2017, Pearson graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, majoring in Government & Legal Studies with a minor in Education Studies. While at Bowdoin, he was a Mellon Mays fellow and was accepted to the summer public policy institute at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.