The day before the healthcare vote, hundreds of right-wing activists gathered outside the Capitol in a protest against the healthcare reform bill.

Protester: “Do these politicians know that we weren’t bussed in, we weren’t carried here, we weren’t organized by some group? We have no JumboTrons, and we have no big electronic systems here. These are the grassroots people in this country. This is Joe and Mary America that have come out here.”

Several crowd members reportedly shouted discriminatory slurs at Democratic Congress members as they entered the Capitol. Congress member John Lewis and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus said they were called the N-word by a group of protesters. And Congress member Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress, was also yelled at with a homophobic slur.