The NAACP's national president was arrested after leading an all-day sit-in at the Mobile, Alabama, office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions to protest his nomination to be the country's next attorney general, NBC News reported.
NAACP President @CornellWBrooks and Youth & College Director @GreenTheRev arrested after day of protest across #Alabama. #StopSessions pic.twitter.com/3HlvyiRMDw — NAACP (@NAACP) January 4, 2017
Cornell William Brooks posted a photo on Twitter of himself with other demonstrators, pledging to stay at the office until Sessions withdraws his name from consideration "or we're arrested."
Several other protesters, including National Youth and College Director Stephen A. Green, were also arrested
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on Sessions' nomination Jan. 10, with many civil rights groups standing in opposition.
Sessions is one of the incoming administration's loudest voices for stepping up immigration enforcement, and has argued against expanding protections for LGBT people.
U.S. & World
The NAACP cited his controversial record with blacks, including his attempts to prosecute charges of voter fraud by black civil rights activists when he was the U.S. attorney in Mobile in the 1980s, and his failed nomination to the federal bench, which was scuttled by allegations of racist remarks.