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The Takeover of Mason Tennessee Reeks of Jim Crow Era Governance
Party line and race are glaring factors in the Tennessee State Comptroller’s planned takeover and de-chartering of small-town, majority Black, and Democratic Mason Tennessee. It quickly becomes obvious that economics are also a factor given even a cursory glance at the 15-year history of Mason’s previous administrative mismanagement, a roll call of thefts by employees, the upcoming $6B investment from Ford Motor Company just 4.5 miles away, and a review of stakeholders formally given a seat at the negotiating table.
The scheduled takeover of Mason, under Republican Governor Bill Lee’s administration, reminds of Jim Crow Era politics — where the political power of descendants of slaves was usurped behind the scenes and too often as open secrets. In addition, the Comptroller’s demand that the city relinquish its charter seems to be a matter of elites appropriating the resources of those they deem less worthy of full political power and are instead framed as “unprepared to manage” the economic benefit from their own legitimately held resources (the city of Mason and its proximity to the Ford battery plant). The usurping informed by race and appropriation that is guided by classism have dogged Freedpeople since emancipation.
With a decree rooted in the state’s discretionary use of power and a stroke of the pen…
