By KATY SAVAGE
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CONCORD — Rev. John Gregory-Davis of the Meriden Congregational Church was arrested in Concord Monday.
He was one of 10 people charged with criminal trespass after he refused to leave the state house after it closed at 5 p.m.
Gregory-Davis is part of a group that goes to the state house every Monday at 2 p.m. to protest for human rights and economic justice – part of the New Hampshire Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
The nationally-organized nonviolent Poor People’s Campaign that lasts six weeks, with a different theme each week. This was the fifth week of the campaign with the theme, “Everyone’s got a right to thrive.”
“What this campaign is intended to do is to wake us up,” Gregory-Davis said. “Everybody has a right to thrive. Everybody has a right to live. We demand we do better.”
About 100 people flooded into the state house on Monday with Gregory-Davis. Since early May they have fought for free education at public universities, livable wages and affordable housing at the state house.
Rev. Rob Grabill, the associate pastor at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College in Hanover was also arrested on Monday.
“All people deserve the right to exist in a safe place,” said Grabill.
Grabill has been interested in civil rights since high school.
“I feel very strongly about a fair wage,” he said.
The Poor People’s Campaign is a tribute to the 50-year anniversary of the 1968 Poor People’s March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Activists and church leaders in 37 states, including Vermont, are leading campaigns locally.
Rev. Gail Kinney of South Danbury Christian Church led the rally on Monday while Gregory-Davis gave a speech outside the state house.
“There are far, far too many people across New Hampshire and the Upper Valley who are not making it or who are living in constant economic anxiety,” Kinney said. “The wages are not enough to support a family.”
Church member Mary Boyle of Cornish said she is saddened by the problems that perpetuate poverty.
“Singing together is empowering,” she said. “I feel more energized as I go back to my own community and tackle the problems with compassion and more clarity instead of being in despair.”
Those who were handcuffed on Monday said the exchange with state troopers who transported them was peaceful. Gregory-Davis said he was processed within two hours. His fingerprints were recorded and his mugshot was taken. Gregory-Davis paid $40 bail and then he was released.
Gregory-Davis has led the Meriden Congregational Church for 23 years. He said economic issues have long been important to him.
“How could it not matter?” he said.
This wasn’t his first arrest. Gregory-Davis was arrested for blocking a street in Washington, D.C. and also for calling attention to homelessness and lack of housing when he lived Connecticut before he moved up to New Hampshire.
“It’s less traumatic and frightening than a lot of people think it is,” he said of being arrested. “The first time I was arrested, I felt like I broke through a major barrier.”
There is one week left of the Poor People’s Campaign. There have been 28 people arrested so far in New Hampshire and 1,500 nationwide.
Gregory-Davis plans to be at the final rally in Concord on June 18 where the theme is, “A New and Unsettling Force.”
He will also participate in a June 23 rally in Washington, D.C. to represent New Hampshire in a nationwide gathering at 10 a.m.
All of the people arrested in Concord on Monday are scheduled to appear in court Aug. 10. They could face up to a year in prison.
Gregory-Davis said it was unlikely he would go to prison for a year, but he would take a sabbatical if needed.
Kinney was not arrested on Monday, but she said the fight is important. She said attacks on worker rights and voting rights are mounting.
“It’s time for a different moral narrative,” she said.
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