The president of the NAACP launched a sit-in on Tuesday at the Mobile, Ala., office of Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
Cornell Brooks, the group’s president, live-tweeted from the carpet floor of Sessions’ office. He vowed to remain there until he and the several other protesters were arrested or Sessions’ rescinded his nomination.
He also shared a picture of a pizza that was delivered to them from a supporter.
On behalf of my hungry colleagues who are sitting in, I want to thank a @NAACP friend in Boston for sending pizza to Mobile. @DemAwakening pic.twitter.com/ZoJiSjVysp
— Cornell Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 3, 2017
The @NAACP & @AlabamaNAACP are occupying the Mobile office of @jeffsessions–untill he withdraws as a AG nominee or we’re arrested.@tvonetv pic.twitter.com/7uceDDpz1Y
— Cornell Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 3, 2017
Trump named Sessions as his pick to lead the Justice Department in November. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump in 2015. He served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993 and was elected attorney general of Alabama in 1994, before running for Senate.
Hezekiah Johnson, the head of the NAACP’s Birmingham chapter, said its decision to stage a sit-in on Tuesday was part of its plan “not to remain silent on this critical matter,” accusing Sessions of suppressing black votes in Alabama three decades earlier.
A spokesperson for Sessions pushed back against the criticism, touting endorsements from African-American leaders across the state and country, including one in the Obama administration.
“Jeff Sessions has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption. Many African-American leaders who’ve known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next Attorney General,” Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’ confirmation spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner. “These false portrayals of Senator Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited.”
African-Americans supporting Sessions’ nomination include Willie Huntley, the former assistant U.S. attorney under Sessions; Donald Watkins, a civil rights attorney in Alabama; Alabama Senate Democratic Leader Quinton Ross; former Obama administration Surgeon General Regina Benjamin; and former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairman Gerald Reynolds.
