About 20 activists barged into House Republican offices on Thursday demanding to meet with Speaker Kurt Daudt, saying he repeatedly rebuffed their requests for meetings to talk about a package of legislative proposals aimed at improving the lives of black Minnesotans.
They clashed with the legislative staff while Daudt and other representatives were on the House floor debating an $800 million bonding bill – and vowed to stay until the speaker's legislative assistant reached him and scheduled an appointment.
"We've presented all these solutions to them … and they've just ignored them," said Wintana Melekin, civic and political engagement director for Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC), which is part of a coalition called United Black Legislative Agenda.
Trailed by two men touting video cameras, Melekin and other activists confronted Isaac Schultz, the speaker's legislative assistant, at his desk on the fourth floor of the State Office Building.
"When will the meeting be?" Melekin asked Schultz.
He explained that he couldn't talk to Daudt while the House was in session.
"We have the worst disparities in the entire country," she said. "We're literally failing black people at a faster rate than anywhere else."
The scene was chaotic at times, as members of the group talked over one another and confronted staffers walking through the office. One activist told Schultz she pitied his soul. A call to the Sergeant of Arms led to a Capitol Security officer stepping in, though he left after concluding that the group was only trying to schedule a meeting.
