African-American leaders in Boston expressed outrage Wednesday that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had been rebuked by the Senate for reading a letter by Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow that accused President Trump’s nominee for attorney general of intimidating black voters.

Several of the leaders said they believed that Senate Republicans were attempting to stifle legitimate criticism of Senator Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican Trump has nominated to lead the Justice Department.

“There are senators who are predominantly white and male who are trying to do whatever they can to prevent the record from reflecting the very legitimate concerns’’ that many civil rights activists have expressed about Sessions, said Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, which has vigorously opposed Sessions’ nomination.

“It’s very troubling and should alarm us all,’’ Sullivan said.

The Rev. David Wright, executive director of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, linked the Senate’s rebuke of Warren to what he called the Trump administration’s attempt to chill the freedom of the press.

“This should be a wake-up call to all of us that something is not right,’’ he said.

The dustup happened Tuesday as Warren stood on the Senate floor and read a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., that accused Sessions of “a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters’’ when Sessions prosecuted three black civil rights activists as the US attorney for Alabama.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, chastised Warren, a Democrat, for violating Rule 19, which forbids senators from impugning the motives or conduct of their colleagues. The Senate agreed on a party-line vote, and Warren was forbidden from speaking further and told to take her seat.

“It’s infuriating; it’s a selective application of the rule, and likely even sexist,’’ said Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat.

“It was not only about Coretta Scott King and Elizabeth Warren,’’ Pressley said. “To me, it was about every woman who has been silenced.’’

Hubie Jones, a former dean of the Boston University School of Social Work, questioned why Warren was found to have violated Senate rules, but Senator Cory Booker was not. The New Jersey Democrat last month delivered blistering testimony opposing Sessions’ nomination.

“There’s been a whole lot of folks piling on Senator Warren lately, and it’s getting to be very, very ugly,’’ Jones said. “It has to be stopped.’’

The Rev. Mark V. Scott, associate pastor of Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester, was more circumspect about the episode and predicted it would die down quickly.

“It’s great theater, but Jeff Sessions will end up confirmed by the Senate, and he’s going to be the attorney general,’’ Scott said.

He said both sides need to move beyond the controversy and focus on concerns that Sessions might cut federally funded antiviolence programs.

“In general, we’re in a situation where one side plays to their base, and the other side plays to their base, and we’re polarized,’’ Scott said. “I would like to get beyond this partisanship . . . because it will end badly.’’

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.