More than a thousand people packed New Direction Christian Church in Memphis’ Hickory Hill neighborhood to rally for Justin Pearson, a Democratic state representative running for Congress, following four fatal shootings by the Memphis Safe Task Force in the past two months. Pearson, who was expelled from the Tennessee General Assembly in 2023 for protesting gun laws after the Covenant school shooting and then reappointed, is now running in a congressional district that was gerrymandered into three Republican-leaning parts after the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling. He was joined by progressive stars Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Summer Lee, who decried the redistricting as Jim Crow-era tactics. Pearson faces M LaTroy A-Williams, London Lamar, and Jim Torino in the August 6 Democratic primary. The rally also highlighted the death of Tywin Johnson, a 20-year-old musician killed by National Guard soldiers during a response to a robbery report; the task force has refused to release video footage or body camera recordings. Pearson called the deaths predictable after federal agents were deployed to the city, saying, 'Our worst fears have been realized.'