Cornel West was arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court on Sunday during an Occupy D.C. protest, the Associated Press repo...

Cornel West was arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court on Sunday during an Occupy D.C. protest, the Associated Press reports.

The Princeton professor and outspoken critic of President Barack Obama was one of the 19 people arrested Sunday afternoon when they refused to leave the grounds of the high court, according to the AP.

West reportedly attended the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial earlier in the day, where Obama spoke, then joined the October 2011 and Stop the Machine protesters – considered a part of the larger Occupy D.C. movement – on the grounds of the Supreme Court.

Over the last few weeks, the demonstrators have made Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington their home base; other members of the Occupy D.C. movement have been camping out in McPherson Square just a few blocks away.

West, a civil rights activist who supported Obama for president, teamed up with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley to launch a multi-city poverty bus tour earlier this year, and has spoken out against the president’s performance, especially as it relates to alleviating the challenges facing the black community.

West has also accused Obama of being “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats,” and suggested that the president “has a certain fear of free black men,” according to the Boston Globe.