The Rev. Jesse Jackson was arrested along with 20 other protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday while demanding the Senate abolish the filibuster.
The 79-year-old political activist and other civil rights leaders, including Bishop William Barber II, were taken into custody while calling out Sens. Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell for opposing the For the People Act and for failing to support a $15 minimum wage, reports said.
Jackson, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017, had to be assisted by his son and another demonstrator as U.S. Capitol Police led him away.
There was no indication that Jackson was placed in handcuffs.
Authorities cited the demonstrators with crowding or obstructing. It’s unclear whether formal charges will be brought against the legendary civil rights icon.
The protest, organized by the Poor People’s Campaign, lasted for two hours before police moved in, reports said.
Demonstrators marched from the Supreme Court to the front of the Hart Senate Building, where they raised their fists and unfurled a sign reading “Manchin, stop hurting West Virginia: Stop the filibuster.”
On the way, Barber reportedly stood in the middle of Constitution Avenue as hundreds of demonstrators marched behind him, calling out Manchin by name.
“We are also here to say to Manchin: Any so-called Democrat who claims to support the non-constitutional filibuster over the constitutional guarantee that no state can deny or abridge the right to vote … you are assisting the Republicans in their extremism,” he said.
Under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate and break a filibuster on policy legislation.
Earlier this month, Manchin vowed he would not vote for the Democrats’ far-reaching bill to combat voter suppression, nor would he ever end the filibuster, a stance seen as a major obstacle to much of President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster,” Manchin wrote in The Charleston Gazette-Mail on June 6.
Before being arrested, Jackson reportedly said: “We come not as an insurrection group, but as a resurrection group,” adding that “today we must fill up the jails ... if you call yourself a child of God, you oughta act like it sometimes.”
Jackson was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997.
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