Politics

NAACP Protesters Are Released From Jail After The #StopSessions Sit-In

The NAACP president and five others were arrested during their protest at the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Trump cabinet nominee.

NAACP Protesters Are Released From Jail After The #StopSessions Sit-In
Twitter / @CornellWBrooks
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The president of the NAACP and five others were released from jail a day after they were arrested during their protest at a U.S. senator's office.

Just hours after they were let go, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks posted the group’s mugshots on Twitter along with the caption, "While we are happy to be out of jail, we are even more heartened and determined to #stopsessions."

The group was handcuffed and taken into custody Tuesday night after occupying Sen. Jeff Sessions' office in Mobile, Alabama, for several hours. The six protesters were charged with second-degree criminal trespassing.

The group was protesting Sessions' nomination as U.S. attorney general.

They said on Twitter they initially planned to sit on the floor of the office until he either withdrew as a nominee or they were arrested.

In a statement before Tuesday's demonstration, Brooks said Sessions has "ignored the reality of voter suppression" yet  "zealously prosecuted innocent civil rights leaders on trumped up charges of voter fraud."

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Sessions has been critical of parts of the Voting Rights Act, but in 2006 he voted to renew it.

He's also faced allegations of racism in the past.

In 1986, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected his federal court nomination after a black colleague said Sessions had called him "boy" and said he thought Ku Klux Klan members "were O.K." until he discovered "they smoked pot."

Sessions later apologized for what he said.

Several other groups — most of them liberal — want Sessions' confirmation hearing to be delayed. It's scheduled for Jan. 10.

They argue Sessions hasn't adequately filled out a Senate Judiciary questionnaire.

The groups, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, People for the American Way, and Alliance for Justice, say Sessions hasn't included enough records, like interviews and speeches.