The president of the NAACP and other demonstrators were arrested during a sit-in on Tuesday night at the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions.
The news comes from a live social media broadcast and social media posts from the NAACP indicating the president Cornell William Brooks and Stephen Green—youth and college director—were taken into police custody.
The organization has not specified the charges, but the Mobile Police Department plans to release a statement on its website.
Brooks alongside 10 or 20 other members staged the sit-in earlier on Tuesday at Sessions’ office in Mobile, Alabama. Sessions is President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Brooks said that he and his associates were ready to face arrest as they called for Sessions to withdraw from the selection process for the position.
A Facebook Live broadcast of Brooks and others being handcuffed and escorted into police vehicles began at 7:30pm E.S.T. from an NAACP account. Demonstrators—including Brooks—peacefully complied with officers and entered the police van.
Neither the Mobile police nor staff from Session’s office could be immediately reached. Brooks was not able to be reached on Tuesday night.
Sessions has said in statements that he might reverse Obama administration advances against alleged police misconduct and that he supports broad immigration reform. He also has said that he believes the Ku Klux Klan is “okay.”
He is an opponent of the Voting Rights Act, which he calls “intrusive legislation.”
“We don’t derive any pleasure from opposing this nomination, but here’s what we know: the Voting Rights Act was literally born in Selma, Ala. … and Sen. Sessions is son of Selma, he was born in Selma, but if we look at what Selma means, if we look at what the Voting Rights Act means and we look at his record, we have to oppose him,” Brooks told USA TODAY in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon.
Selma was where Bloody Sunday occurred on March 7, 1965—when 600 civil rights demonstrators persevered through violence perpetrated by Alabama state troopers and local police. Among those injured in the attacks was John Lewis, D-Ga. Martin Luther King’s return to the city to complete the Selma-to-Montgomery March has been credited with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
“It’s not good when you vote with the majority of your colleagues to support the re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act but then you call the act unnecessary, you sign onto a report to weaken it,” Brooks said.
Brooks and the demonstrators were told that Sessions would not be able to meet with them. They were also unable speak with Sessions’ policy staff in Washington, according to Brooks.
Twitter users around the world expressed their support for the NAACP members. One friend of the group sent pizza to the group.
In response to the events, an aid of Sessions produced a list of black lawyers and officials who have allegedly endorsed Sessions.
The list includes such names as Willie Huntley—a black assistant federal attorney in Alabama—and Quinton Ross—Alabama’s Senate democratic leader, according to Sarah Isgur Flores, spokesperson for Sen. Session’s confirmation, in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.
“Jeff Sessions has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption,” Isgur Flores said in her statement.
“Many African-American leaders who’ve known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next attorney general,” the statement read. “These false portrayals of Senator Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited. From the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Sheriffs Association to civil rights leaders and African-American elected officials, to victims’ rights organizations, Senator Sessions has inspired confidence from people across the country that he will return the Department of Justice to an agency the American people can be proud of once again.”
This event was one of several efforts of the NAACP’s stand against Sessions. The Baltimore-based group is using the hashtag #StopSessions to share some of their activities.
ColorofChange.org—a civil rights organization—has asked members of the public to submit questions to ask Sessions during his confirmation hearings.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund—a separate entity from the NAACP—has been sharing information about Sessions’ civil rights positions.
“We’re calling on citizens of this country to not accept as fait accompli the nomination of attorney general,” Brooks said. “It’s not a political coronation, it’s a democratic confirmation. We’re calling on people to tweet, e-mail, show up at the senator’s office and voice their opinion, wisely, thoughtfully.”
