ATLANTA — Protesters demanded action from legislators returning Monday to the General Assembly.

Going into the third week of demonstrations in Atlanta, protesters marched from Richard B. Russell Federal Building in downtown Atlanta to the State Capitol Monday. They pressed lawmakers to listen to their demands as the legislative session reconvened after three months on hiatus.

Organized by the Georgia NAACP, protesters called for lawmakers to repeal the citizen’s arrest law, expand voting rights for nonviolent felony offenders, amend the state’s stand-your-ground laws and reject an elections bill that Democrats urge will cause more confusion with the process.

“We will shut down this Capitol, if they do not answer our demands with immediate action,” the Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, said.

The death of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer outside of a Wendy’s restaurant Friday, sparked additional protests during the weekend and reignited masses of Georgians calling for state officials to address police brutality and systemic racism.

A handful of speakers addressed the crowd on the steps of the Capitol building.

“This is not a moment,” Pastor Jamal Bryant of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church said. “This is a movement. We’ve been going for 17 days and we’re not going to stop.”

Lawmakers understood this could be the first of many protests calling for legislators to take action if nothing is done under the Gold Dome.

Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, told the crowd that they have the power to vote their elected officials out of office.

“You can start the change at the ballot box. Your voice being here today is change,” she said. “We hear you, every time you cheer, we can hear you in that building. Every time you cheer, we hear what you say.”

Bipartisan call for hate crime legislation

While chants from protesters outside echoed through the chambers of the State Capitol building, lawmakers implored their colleagues to pass House Bill 426 — Georgia’s pending hate crimes legislation.

The bill passed the House last session but has been sitting in Senate committee for 465 days.

The killing of Ahmaud Arbery — a black, unarmed man — by three white men in Brunswick shined a new light on the legislation prompting calls from both sides of the aisle and in both chambers for its passage.

House Speaker David Ralston said while dealing with a pandemic, Georgians were “sickened and horrified” by the murder of Arbery and called the event an “act of evil right here in our state.”

Ralston said while passing the Fiscal Year 2021 budget is the one thing the General Assembly must do by law, passing hate crimes legislation is “just as important.”

“For all we do not know,” he said, “we do know that if we leave here, this session, without passing a hate crimes bill — House Bill 426 — it will be a stain on this state, that we can never wash away.”

Across the building, Senate members took a stand for the hate crimes bill.

“There is no excuse why we are not moving at all due haste to pass that bill as we have protesters in the street in front of us,” Senate Minority Leader Steven Henson, D-Stone Mountain, said.

Sen. P.K. Martin, R-Lawrenceville — one of the the governor’s floor leaders — stood up in support of passing hate crimes legislation.

“No single law can or will end racism,” he said. “We should pass meaningful hate crimes legislation this session. We should continue to work with law enforcement to bolster and review the training and we should increase outreach to our minority communities.”

Sen. Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, said she has worked toward passing racial profiling legislation since 1999.

“Just imagine if we had passed a racial profiling bill in 1999,” she said. “How many lives could have been saved, how many confrontations could have been avoided, how much more trust could have been established. And how we might not be here today, in this position.”