In a stunning act of legal contortion, federal authorities arrested two prominent Black women activists in Minneapolis for participating in a nonviolent protest at a church. Following a prayer during Sunday service, minister and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong posed a question to the pastor. It prompted a brief exchange that led protestors to chant for justice for Renee Good. There were no acts of violence, threats or intimidation—it was, by all accounts, a peaceful protest.
Yet, despite the absence of any malice or physical harm, federal agents descended upon them, arresting Armstrong, who is also a former NAACP branch president, St. Paul School Board member Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and veteran activist DaWoke Farmer (William Keller). Though the specific charges remain murky, it appears the federal government invoked two statutes originally designed to protect civil rights and address violent intimidation: the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
The outrageous irony here cannot be overstated. Black women engaged in a nonviolent act of dissent are being accused of conspiring to deprive people of their civil rights under the Klan Act — a law Congress passed in 1871 to provide a legal hook to prosecute the Klan for its violent, terroristic acts targeting newly freed Black people during Reconstruction.
Similarly, the FACE Act was created to protect women seeking abortions from intimidation and violence as they accessed reproductive health clinics. It also criminalizes violence and the threat of physical force at a religious place of worship. The law was never intended to be used to suppress peaceful protest inside a church, absent any force or threat of harm.
The misuse of these laws is stark. The KKK Act and the FACE Act simply do not extend to actions of peaceful protest. This Administration is demonstrating an ongoing pattern of co-opting and misusing laws that were passed to protect Black people from white supremacy to, now, protect white supremacy by silencing its critics.
Source: Civil Rights Lawyer: How a KKK Law is Being Used to Silence Two Black Women in Minneapolis
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