By Morgan Chilson, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Christie Peterson says she wasn’t a political activist before February and certainly had never been arrested.
But last week, Peterson, a Kansas 50501 organizer from Oskaloosa, was one of eight Kansans arrested in Washington, D.C., in what they call a planned act of civil disobedience.
“Does it matter that I got arrested? It only matters if it gets more eyes on the pushback and more people willing to join us in calling our representatives, writing our representatives, trying to meet with our senators and showing up for protests,” Peterson said. “My personal belief is it’s going to take thousands and thousands on the streets saying no, like has happened in other countries, and like happened in some periods of our history.”
Peterson and 12 other Kansans traveled to Washington as part of the Free State Advocates to raise awareness about proposed housing cuts in the House and Senate budgets that would affect families nationwide.
“We were seeing it both as taking our message to D.C., also at the same time, we were hearing of D.C. being quote-unquote occupied, and social media is really hard to trust,” Peterson said. “So we also wanted to kind of go put our own eyes on and bring back the message of what is really happening in D.C. at the moment.”
Peterson became involved with 50501 in February, a group that formed with the initial focus of holding 50 protests in 50 states on one day. Peterson attended that first protest and then noticed there weren’t any others planned. She stepped forward.
“I went from zero to 60,” Peterson said.
She learned how to “pull a permit” to protest at the Kansas capitol, and she connected with others in the state who wanted their voices heard too.
For several months, Peterson has been the lead facilitator for Kansas’ 50501 movement, along with other roles, such as volunteer coordinator. She has pulled back some on that now as she’s working with other groups.
Peterson said she connected with other political activists and last week made her way to Washington with the Free State Advocates, a group of Kansas activists focused on human rights.
In the nation’s capital, the group listened to U.S. Rep. Rashida Talib, D-Michigan, speak during a press conference about the impact of cuts to rental assistance programs that are projected to affect 100,000-plus households nationwide.
Then they set up pop-up tents in the Dirksen Senate Office Building’s busy cafeteria and chanted until police arrived to arrest them, Peterson said.
Peterson’s first arrest wasn’t dramatic, she said.
“I will say that I honestly believe the safest police place in America to get arrested is in the capitol,” Peterson said. “They know what they’re doing. They’re not taking it personally. Their energy levels are maintained at a level of calmness.”
Peterson said the Free State Advocates met up with another group, Popular Democracy in Action, and merged with them to support their work. That group practiced with them what it would be like to be arrested and how to stay calm, and explained that with people standing around yelling, the energy can change the way the arrest is handled, she said.
The other Kansans arrested were Miranda Bachman, Shelby Hermosillo, Olivia Phillips, Gary Phillips, Becky Norlin, Michelle Jones and Sara Gillum. Almost all were were released quickly, but Norlin was detained overnight on additional charges of resisting, Peterson said.
In looking at the video later, Peterson said, it looked as if Norlin were trying to turn away to continue chanting.
While in Washington, the group visited Kansas U.S. representatives’ and senators’ offices, speaking with their staff about the national political environment.
They met with staff of Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat who represents the 3rd District, and Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican representing the 4th District, to talk about the need to protect immigrants, and low-income and queer people, the group said in a press release. They also spoke to Sen. Jerry Moran’s staff to discuss concerns about National Guard deployments to Wichita, as well as education and preserving the federal safety net, the press release said.
“I’m the only trans member of the group. I need to push my voice just as much as I’m helping to push everyone else’s,” said Jesseka Greene, of Abilene, in the press release. “In Moran’s office, I felt heard. I felt the emotional response I got when I got into the details of my experience as a trans woman looking for a job, after a lifetime of struggling through school needing more support.”
Peterson had a different experience in Moran’s office, where she went with a small group to deliver yellow postcards the group had used to create a “yellow brick road” concept on the capitol steps. People had written messages on the cards with the intent to give them to Moran and Sen. Roger Marshall.
But in Moran’s office, Peterson said, she was talking to them about the cards when suddenly the capitol police arrived to escort them out.
“They hadn’t even ever asked me to leave or spoken at all to me, other than letting me in,” she said.
The police explained to Peterson that she wasn’t allowed to bring in documents like that to U.S. capitol offices, although Peterson said other members of her group had dropped letters off the day before.
A spokesperson for Moran said the Kansas Impact Coalition had requested a meeting and Peterson was on the list for that meeting on Thursday. But on Friday, when Peterson was delivering the yellow cards, capitol police were notified of a group of people gathered for an extended time outside a staff office in the Dirksen building. Two police officers arrived after that call, just as Peterson and others went into Moran’s front office.
The spokesperson said the group delivered written messages, some of which said “karma is a b**ch” and “FDT,” and also included a drawing of a coffin with the letters RIP.
Peterson said the group gathered 300-plus “uncensored” messages from Kansans because Moran and Marshall have refused to meet with them in Kansas.
“We condemn violence in all forms. Period,” she said, adding that Moran’s office “cherrypicked” a few angry lines to distract from the message that Kansans are hurting and deserve to be heard.
Peterson said she and others in her group want to be heard by the politicians who represent them in Washington, D.C., as she believes is the wish of many Kansans.
“I’m biracial, and looking back in history at the civil rights movement, we’re following the pathway that has created change, movement, for the rights we have now,” said Olivia Phillips, one of the protesters arrested, in a press release. “I felt as though I was doing a very similar thing protesting in this way, causing civil unrest like my grandparents and great grandparents stood with in the 60s. We come from the center of the country and we’re not getting heard.”
For Peterson, the reason to become an activist was simple: her two daughters.
“I was really scared by the people that I saw being nominated to lead our nation’s organizations and departments,” she said. “Not a fan of Donald Trump, but it was as I saw all of the things that had been proposed as part of Project 2025 that looked, by the evidence of who they were putting in charge of departments, to really be on the agenda for this administration, I became quite terrified.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the individuals who were arrested.
