NASHVILLE - One of two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican state lawmakers for leading a gun-control protest was sworn back into office on the Tennessee Capitol steps Monday after local officials unanimously voted to reinstate him.

The 36-0 vote by the Nashville Metro Council to give Rep. Justin Jones, 27, his job back comes just a few days after Tennessee Republicans expelled Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis from the chamber. The Shelby County Commission is expected to vote on whether to reappoint Pearson on Wednesday.

Their expulsions were the latest move by Republican state leaders around the country to openly stifle dissent in a majority-Republican statehouse and once again brought to the fore the country's divisions over gun control, race and freedom of speech.

The GOP's efforts also turned Jones and Pearson into political rock stars hailed by Democrats as reflections of the next political generation.

President Joe Biden has spoken by phone with the expelled lawmakers. Vice President Kamala Harris visited them in Nashville. The NAACP called the incident "horrific but not surprising."

After Monday's vote, which took less than 15 minutes, Jones leaped from his seat to thunderous applause and cheers. Swarmed by TV cameras, he was followed by more than 1,000 supporters as he triumphantly left the council chamber. As they marched down Nashville streets, protesters chanted "our House" and "this is what democracy looks like."

"Our voters were silenced," councilwoman Delishia Porterfield, who lives in Jones's district, said at the meeting. "With this vote, we are restoring the political voice of 70,000 people of District 52. Their will should have never been undermined. The people chose their representative. We will send a strong message that we will not tolerate threats to our democracy."

On the steps of the capitol, Jones was joined by Pearson and spoke to the crowd through a bullhorn. "This is the rebirth and resurrection of a movement in Tennessee, not just today but in the days ahead," Jones said. "The birth of the new South, because right here in Nashville we've got movements led by young people that transformed this nation."

After he was sworn back in at 5:15 p.m., less than an hour after the council voted to reinstate him, supporters chanted "welcome home."

As he addressed the crowd, Pearson didn't directly address a pending vote on his seat, but said Nashville's decision was a step in the right direction for "having a pluralistic, multiracial, multiethnic, multi-economic democracy."

"We are way more powerful than the NRA or the gun lobby or anybody who told us we just need to shut up and sit down," Pearson said.

Republican leaders said the lawmakers who quickly became known as the "Tennessee Three" - Jones and Pearson, who were ousted, and Rep. Gloria Johnson, who was not - had violated the body's rules of decorum during the March 30 protest.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth and Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison said they would "welcome" Jones and Pearson back to the chamber if they are reappointed, but advised them to follow chamber protocol.

"Like everyone else, they are expected to follow the rules of the House as well as state law," Lamberth and Faison said in a joint statement. They added that Republican members "continue to mourn the six lives lost," referring to the Covenant School shooting, which ended in six deaths, including three children.

Over the weekend, Jones and Pearson were abruptly removed from the legislature's phone directory and website. But with the council vote Monday night, Jones regained his seat before legislative leaders had time to remove his name from his office door.

Jones and Pearson, if also reappointed, will still have to run for reelection in a special election since their appointment is taking place more than 12 months before the next state election in November 2024.

Tennessee state Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat, who represents part of Memphis, said the expected vote in Shelby County on Wednesday to reappoint Pearson could be closer than Monday's vote on Jones in Nashville. The Shelby County Commission has 13 members, including four Republicans.

But Lamar, a former state representative, said she is now confident that Pearson also has enough votes to be reappointed.

"In an attempt to be malicious, you have now created two political megastars who have now made history," said Lamar, who conceded she was skeptical of the confrontation tactics that the two lawmakers had embraced to draw attention to gun violence. "I think now it is going to be hard for the Tennessee GOP to continue their covert and overt racism tactics because now the whole nation is watching."

Both men raked in tens of thousands of campaign donations over the weekend, Lamar said.

State House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, in an interview with a Knoxville radio station, proclaimed their actions were an "insurrection" equivalent to or worse than that at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Sexton did walk back his comment on Twitter later. But he still called the Democratic lawmakers demonstrating for gun control "unacceptable," and a violation of decorum.

Sexton said that if Jones and Pearson were reappointed, they would be seated. "The two governing bodies will make the decision as to who they want to appoint to these seats. Those two individuals will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires," Sexton said in a statement.

With a legacy of racism in the state, many in Jones's district felt the Tennessee House of Representatives' swift action to kick out the young Black man who represents this area only showed that this is a still a state where White men wield the true power.

Margot McCormack, a Nashville resident and restaurant owner, said Jones's reinstatement "represented hope" for her city. "Justin has been launched into the stratosphere of politics," McCormack said. "And this has been a really pivotal day because it shows the people's will and what they can do."

Nashville is a city of contrasts, representing the country's divisions dating back to the Civil War. Today, the main state office building is named after former President Andrew Jackson, who owned enslaved people, and three streets that encircle capitol grounds are named after Martin Luther King Jr., former congressman John Lewis and civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

At a rally Monday afternoon, several hundred people chanted "No Justin, No Peace" as they called for Jones to be reinstated. "The fact we have to be here is completely absurd," said Mary Kay, 69 of Nashville. "I just wanted to be here to support the young people because the more bodies, the more representation. ... Power corrupts and the [Republicans] have taken this to the 10th degree, and it's got to change."

At about 6 p.m., Jones emerged from the capitol to again address throngs of assembled supporters. When he entered the building after being sworn in, Jones told the crowd that a Republican member immediately asked if he was "going to act different" now that he had been reinstated.

"My response was, 'Is the speaker going to act different?'" said Jones, who declined to identify the legislator. "Is he going to silence people? Or is he going to admit that democracy actually exists in the legislature?"