Carolyn Foster, an organizer and leader, speaking at the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign Moral Monday protest on Sept. 29, 2025, on the front steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. The group of local clergy and pastors called on Alabama U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville to restore funding to Medicaid and SNAP.(Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
With the federal government facing a possible shutdown, about 80 people gathered on the front steps of the Alabama State Capitol Monday to protest the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and to call on Alabama U.S. Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville to restore funding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
The protest, part of the Alabama Poor People’s Campaign Moral Mondays, was organized by clergy and pastors from across the South, and led by Rev. Carolyn Foster of Greater Birmingham Ministries. The group sang a chorus while they marched from the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church to the Capitol.
“Somebody’s killin’ our people, and it’s gone on far too long. And we won’t be silent anymore,” the group sang.
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The OBBBA cuts to SNAP will impact the state more than any changes to Medicaid eligibility because Alabama has not expanded Medicaid. Lenice Emanuel, director of the Alabama Institute for Social Justice, said the cuts in the OBBBA should be considered attacks on human rights. According to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center, nine rural hospitals have closed in Alabama since 2009.
“These institutions, they depend on Medicaid reimbursements just to exist. So when Medicaid gets cut, hospitals literally close,” Emanuel said. “And when hospitals close, we have people with heart attacks who are being untreated, and we have families traveling for miles when they have an emergency.”
More than 750,000 Alabamians are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but SNAP is a completely federal program. Starting in fiscal year 2028, the state will have to pay for 10% of SNAP benefits. In Alabama, that would mean the state would have to pay an additional $208.7 million with current enrollments, according to an August estimate from the Alabama Department of Human Resources.
“This is not just cruel. It is not just bad policy. It is immoral,” Emanuel said. “We should consider childcare a human right. We should consider food in this state a human right. Healthcare should be considered a human right. Dignity should be considered a human right.”
A presbyterian pastor in Vestavia Hills, Leanne Pearce Reed, and a Montgomery pastor, Gary Brower, said they were protesting because it is what Jesus Christ would do.
“That is why we serve the least of these. And in our congregation, like so many faith communities in this state, we give food to our food pantries so that families can come and have enough to eat,” Reed said. “We do all of these things, and then our lawmakers do not do their part to stand up for the least of these. Our lawmakers say we are going to take health care from those who are already vulnerable.”
Hanna Broome, the religious director for Repairers of the Breach, said it is important to remember Alabama’s history in the Civil Rights Movement and to carry that history to bring change today.
“The South is home to deep pain, but I truly believe also transformative potential when the South shifts towards justice, the nation follows,” Broome said. “This is why we gather, not in protest alone, but in prophecy, to organize and to lead. Moral Mondays are our declaration that we will not be silent while policy makers drag this nation backwards.”
Brower urged lawmakers to be more like the Good Samaritan.
“Jesus makes a point of it being good, because there were two people who did walk by, and they were people with power,” Brower said. “They were people with prestige. They were people with voices. They probably even had podcasts. They were able to shape opinions, but when they saw someone on the side of the road, beaten up, stripped, robbed. They walked by.”
Valtoria Jackson, an organizer, said organizers planned to deliver a letter with data of the impacts of the OBBBA to the Montgomery offices of Britt and Tuberville.
“We’re not coming in anger. We’re coming in hopes of cooperation. We’re coming together,” she said.
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Author: Anna Barrett