After being ruled out of order twice by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for bringing up gun legislation, U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC) decided it was time to try a different strategy. Last Wednesday, he helped lead a group of Democrats in a sit-in protest on the floor of the House that lasted over 25 hours.
The move was designed to protest Ryan's decision to not allow the House to vote on gun control legislation after the largest mass shooting in U.S. history took place in Orlando.
"We started this week asking the question, 'When can we get a vote?' and were shouted down," Clyburn said outside the Capitol after the protest. "[It] does not sound like he wanted to give us a vote."
In response, Democrats tried to block all regular business from taking place on the floor of the House.
Clyburn, who represents a district that stretches from Columbia to Charleston and includes the USC campus, is the assistant democratic leader in the House and played a prominent role in the protest that stretched into Thursday morning. Ultimately, Republicans adjourned the House for the traditional week-long Fourth of July recess without casting a vote on either the so-called "no fly, no buy" bill that would have banned those on the no-fly list from buying guns or a proposed bill to require background checks for all gun purchases.
The most prominent leader of the protest was Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who was a student leader in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
"Many years ago, when I was only 20 years old, I participated in sit-ins and by sitting down, we were really standing up," Lewis said in an interview with CNN during the protest. "Too many of our children, too many of our sisters and brothers, our mothers and fathers, our friends, our cousins are dying by guns. And we have to do something about it. We cannot wait."
Lewis alluded to his history of non-violent civil disobedience, including when he served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 until 1966.
"Sometimes you have to violate a rule or law to uphold a greater law — a moral law," Lewis said. "We have a right to stand up, to speak up, to speak out and we have a right to sit down or to sit in, to engage in non-violent protest. It is always right to do right."
Clyburn echoed Lewis' words Wednesday as he led a prayer on the floor of the House, praying for gun violence victims who died "because of our refusal to speak up, stand up, and support just laws that could ensure the safety and security for our fellow humans.”
Clyburn alluded to his own past with the civil rights movement when he addressed USC students and the media last year at a Greene Street voter registration event he co-hosted.
“When I was a student I was sitting in, kneeling in and going to jail," he said. "In fact, I met my wife in jail when we were students at South Carolina State, because we were challenging the status quo. And it’s time for the status quo to get challenged once again.”
Lewis greeted Clyburn warmly as they stood next to each other during the protest and made reference to their shared history of controversial activism and civil disobedience.
"If someone had told me then that the two of us would be serving in the House of Representatives together, I would say, 'You're crazy, you're out of your mind, you don't know what you're talking about,'" Lewis said.
Clyburn then turned to the press gallery. "Let me begin my remarks by thanking the media," he said.
The press continued covering the protest even though the Republicans had briefly adjourned the House in response, meaning that C-SPAN had stopped its live coverage. Clyburn referenced the continuing media presence.
"Thanks to them the American people got to look in on and listen to what is taking place on this floor," he said. "The mikes were cut off, the cameras were cut off."
For his part, Ryan derided the protest as "nothing more than a publicity stunt" in a appearance on CNN last Wednesday.
Clyburn closed his remarks from the floor last Wednesday evening by referencing Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham Jail, which was read by the protesting members at Clyburn's request.
"King said to us in that letter that we are going to be made to repent not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people," Clyburn said. "I am here to say today that the good people in this House have broken their silence. We will not be silent any longer."
On social media, Clyburn referenced last year's shooting at the Emmanuel AME church in Charleston. "MLK decried 'the appalling silence of good people,'” Clyburn tweeted. "1 yr after #Emanuelamechurch I won't be silent. Now is the time for action."