As the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced this year’s 25 MacArthur fellows, one recipient of the prestigious award ― a progressive Christian pastor ― was busy getting arrested in an act of civil disobedience.

The Rev. William J. Barber II, a 55-year-old North Carolina pastor, was arrested on Thursday outside McDonald’s Chicago headquarters, according to The Raleigh News & Observer. He was protesting alongside fast-food workers who are fighting to raise the minimum wage and secure union rights.

The arrest is not at all out of character for Barber, a longtime civil rights advocate. He has been arrested at least 15 times, according to The Associated Press.

It was his street-level activism and long history of leading national civil rights campaigns that helped him win one of this year’s MacArthur fellowships. He is the pastor of a small Disciples of Christ church in Goldsboro. After becoming president of North Carolina’s NAACP in 2005, he grew frustrated by policies advanced by the Republican-held legislature that he believed suppressed votes and trampled over the rights of poor, immigrant, LGBTQ and other marginalized communities. In 2013 he started organizing Moral Monday rallies and marches outside his state legislature to protest those policies while engaging in voter registration and education efforts.