NAACP Stages Sit-in to Protest Sessions’ Nomination as Attorney General
Leaders with the NAACP are calling on the Senate to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, and staging a sit-in in Sessions’ Mobile office in protest.
NAACP President Cornell William Brooks tweeted Tuesday that he and others with the Alabama NAACP were occupying Sessions’ office until Sessions withdraws his nomination or they are arrested.
The @NAACP & @AlabamaNAACP are occupying the Mobile office of @jeffsessions–until he withdraws as a AG nominee or we’re arrested.@tvonetv pic.twitter.com/7uceDDpz1Y
— Cornell Wm. Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 3, 2017
The action came as the organization held a series of press conferences around Alabama in which NAACP leaders expressed concerns about Sessions’ ability to be impartial, particularly on issues of civil rights.
Criticism over civil rights arguably cost Sessions a federal judgeship in 1986. Lawyers who worked with Sessions testified at his Senate confirmation hearing that he used racist language and called the NAACP “un-American.” Birmingham chapter president Hezekiah Jackson says he sees no evidence Sessions has changed since then.
“We think it’s the same Jeff Sessions that was the Jeff Sessions during those confirmation hearings for his federal judgeship,” Jackson says.
He says the idea that Sessions would be in charge of enforcing voting rules or investigating police brutality is disconcerting.
“Because it’s almost as if someone … [were] putting the fox in charge of the hen house,” Jackson says.
Sessions’ office did not respond to a request for comment. He has denied the characterizations made by his critics. He’s also pointed out that as a U.S. attorney he prosecuted a Klansman for the murder of a black teenager.
UPDATE 1/04/17: Six protesters with the NAACP have been arrested after the group staged a sit-in at the Mobile office of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. The sit-in began late Tuesday morning. Video broadcast on social media shows police handcuffing protesters and escorting them into a police vehicle Tuesday evening.
In a comment before the arrests, a spokeswoman for Sessions says his opponents are pushing “false portrayals” of his record.
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