On Friday, Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, delivered a petition with more than 97,000 signatures to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office in an effort to stop Jeff Sessions from becoming attorney general.
According to a press release sent to EBONY on behalf of the organization, the group is calling for the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose Sessions’ confirmation, citing his long history of racially charged comments and actions.
“History speaks for itself: Jeff Sessions is a racist,” Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, said in an emailed statement. “Thirty years ago, a Republican-controlled Senate committee determined that Sessions’ track record of racism made him unfit for a federal judgesship. Now in 2017, Sessions has been nominated for one of the most important roles in our federal government and the stakes are even higher.”
Sessions, who has a long and disturbing history of racism, was nominated for the position by president-elect Donald Trump in November. In the past Sessions has referred to a Black federal prosecutor as “boy,” has falsely prosecuted Black political activists and fought to repeal the voting rights of African-Americans.
Last week, six members of the Alabama chapter of the NAACP were arrested at Sessions’ Alabama office after staging a sit-in protest opposing his nomination to the position.
The group members vowed to remain at his office until “Sessions meets our demands or the arrest — whichever he chooses.”
Read Sen. Jeff Sessions: 5 Things That Should Concern You About Trump’s AG Choice.
