Dozens of protesters sat in the crosswalk Monday in front of the Tennessee Capitol as part of the national Poor People’s Campaign, The Tennessean reported.
The protest blocked afternoon rush hour traffic on the Victory Memorial Bridge (James Robertson Parkway), News Channel 5 reported.
According to the group’s press release, Monday’s rally kicked off a six-week season of nonviolent direct action in Nashville, demanding a massive overhaul of the nation’s voting rights laws, the TV station said. There were more than 30 such protests nationwide.
More than a dozen protesters were arrested Monday afternoon after they blocked a busy downtown Indianapolis street during rush hour, Denver 7 reported.
The socialist Poor People’s Campaign styles itself as a way to “challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality.”
The group’s website further adds, “We aim to shift the distorted moral narrative often promoted by religious extremists in the nation from issues like prayer in school, abortion, and gun rights to one that is concerned with how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, immigrants, the disabled and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the desire for peace, love and harmony within and among nations.”
