Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), no stranger to passive resistance, was arrested Monday as part of a protest against the Sudanese government’s humanitarian policies in that nation’s Darfur region.

Arrested along with Lewis during a rally staged by the Save Darfur Coalition were Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.). They were taken into custody after crossing a police line and refusing to leave the area in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. They paid a $100 fine and were released.  

“It is important to send a message not only to the people in this country and our own government, but to the people of the world that the genocide in Darfur must end,” said Lewis, who was arrested numerous times with Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement. “What is going on there are crimes against humanity.”

Lewis blamed the east African nation’s for the deaths of almost 500,000 people in the western region known as Darfur.