The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other employees of the organization were arrested around 7 p.m. CST Tuesday after they refused to leave Sen. Jeff Sessions’ office in Mobile, Ala.
President Cornell Brooks and three other staffers were taken into police custody after spending the day sitting on the floor of the Republican senator’s office. Brooks said they would not leave until either Sessions declined his nomination as attorney general or they were arrested.
The protesters surrendered peacefully, shaking hands with the officers who responded to the call in a video of the incident. Brooks told the law enforcement officers he was aware they had engaged in a voluntary act of “civil disobedience.”
Another photo of @NAACP sit in aftermath pic.twitter.com/Gm9nkGcNsu
— Lee Hedgepeth (@ALPolitics) January 4, 2017
The group live-tweeted the event throughout the day, even sharing a picture of a pizza that was delivered to them from a supporter.
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 the 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.
