{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://veasey.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/black-congressional-staffers-stage-hands-up-walk-out-on-capitol-hill", "Black Congressional Staffers Stage Hands Up Walk Out On Capitol Hill", "2014-12-11", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "TX", "Marc Veasey", "V000131", "veasey.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "In the\u00a0wake of protests\u00a0that erupted after police officers were not indicted in the cases of bothEric Garner in New York\u00a0and the\u00a0Michael Brown of Ferguson, congressional staff members staged a Capitol Hill walkout.\nA mass of black congressional staffers\u00a0walked out of the Capitol building\u00a0on Thursday (December 11) at 3:30 pm ET, raising there hands up in the\u00a0\u201cHands Up, Don\u2019t Shoot\u201d\u00a0position as they paused united on the building steps. The event was spearheaded by the Congressional Black Associates group, a few congress members joined the protest, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas.\n\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to cause any type of controversy,\u201d one staffer told\u00a0CNN. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to highlight this issue, to show solidarity with people who have been affected.\u201d\nThe walk-out drew other minority staff members, including the Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association and the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association.\n\u201cI believe it\u2019s important, because what affects one community really affects the entire country,\u201d a staffer said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just one group of minorities that\u2019s affected. How one group is treated affects Asians, Hispanics, women. It\u2019s important that we show our solidarity and come together and really speak out about the injustices that are being done.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://veasey.house.gov//media-center/in-the-news/black-congressional-staffers-stage-hands-up-walk-out-on-capitol-hill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.518462086096406, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}