#new Fast Fact: Rep. Justin Pearson’s elite education and stable family background undercut his act of being an inner-city activist, complete with an Afro and tough guy actions.
Critics saying, “His ghetto Dashiki routine is pure performance.”
Pearson’s father is a college graduate and a longtime pastor
His mother earned a doctorate in education, and
He graduated from Bowdoin College in 2017, which is a wealthy, overwhelmingly white liberal arts school in Brunswick, Maine.
He spent part of his teenage years in a prosperous Virginia suburb.
Conservatives say Pearson is the textbook example of a privileged left-wing operator who code-switches for political gain.
They say he attended one of the nation’s most expensive and liberal colleges, and comes from educated, church-going parents yet he shows up shouting like a 1960s radical, while pushing gun control, identity politics, and big-government fixes in Memphis.
Pearson is the fourth of five boys.
His father, Rev. Jason C. Pearson Sr., is the pastor of Community of Faith Christian Church in Memphis and earned a Master of Divinity from Howard University.
His mother, Dr. Kimberly Owens-Pearson, is a longtime teacher who has a doctorate in education.
In high school, Pearson lobbied the school board for textbooks and AP classes, he joined the debate team, and graduated as valedictorian.
His family emphasized church and education.
