William Barber II

William Barber
Born	William Joseph Barber II (1963-08-30)August 30, 1963 Indianapolis,Indiana,U.S.
Education	North Carolina Central University(BA) Duke University(MDiv) Drew University(DMin)

William J. Barber II(born August 30, 1963) is an AmericanProtestant minister,social activist, professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy atYale Divinity School.He is the president and senior lecturer at Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of thePoor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival.He also serves as a member of the national board of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP) and is the chair of its legislativepolitical action committee.From 2006 to 2017, Barber served as president of the NAACP's North Carolina state chapter, the largest in theSouthern United Statesand the second-largest in the United States.He pastored Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) inGoldsboro, North Carolina,from 1993 to 2023.

Education and family

Barber was born inIndianapolisto Eleanor Barber and William J. Barber, Sr,who then moved their young family toWashington County, North Carolina,to participate in thedesegregationof the public school system there: his mother as a secretary/office manager, his father as a physics teacher, and young Barber as a kindergarten student.

Barber was elected president of the local NAACP youth council in 1978, at the age of 15.At 17, he becamestudent body presidentof his high school, the first president to serve the integrated school for an entire year, breaking the previous tradition of alternating a black president & white president for each semester.He then enrolled atNorth Carolina Central University(NCCU) and became student government president at age 19. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from NCCU,cum laudein 1985; aMaster of Divinitydegree fromDuke Universityin 1989; and a doctorate fromDrew Universitywith a concentration in public policy and pastoral care in 2003.

In 1984, he met a first-year NCCU student, Rebecca McLean, at a march in support ofJesse Jackson's presidential campaign;they married three years later.

In his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed withankylosing spondylitis,which has affected his spine ever since.In December 2023, employees atAMC TheatresinGreenvillerefused areasonable accommodationfor his condition. He had been attending a screening ofThe Color Purplewith his 90-year-old mother. Police were called on Dr. Barber when he objected and he agreed to leave or be cited fortrespassing.AMC Theatres Chairman and CEOAdam Aronissued an apology the next day.

Activism

Beginning in April 2013, Barber led regular "Moral Mondays"civil-rights protests in North Carolina's state capital,Raleigh.The Wall Street Journalcredited Barber's NAACP chapter with forming a coalition in 2007 named Historic Thousands on Jones Street People's Assembly, composed of 93 North Carolina advocacy groups. "With this changing demographic, we had to operate in coalition", Barber was quoted as saying.Historian and professorTimothy Tysonnamed Barber, "the most important progressive political leader in this state in generations", saying that he "built a statewide interracial fusion political coalition that has not been seriously attempted since 1900".An article in theMichigan State Law Review,"Confronting Race: How a Confluence of Social Movements Convinced North Carolina to Go where the McCleskey Court Wouldn't" credits him with bringing together a statewide political coalition. He "has become as well known [in North Carolina] as [Governor]Pat McCroryand Republican leaders of the House and Senate ", according to a 2013Huffington Postprofile of him.He traveled with NAACP President and CEOBenjamin Todd Jealousto meet with Georgia prison officials.

In 2014, he founded Repairers of the Breach, a501(c)(3)non-profit organization "formed to educate and train religious and other leaders of faith who will pursue policies and organizational strategies for the good of the whole and to educate the public about connections between shared religious faith".

In 2016, he delivered a speech at theDemocratic National Convention;the address was described as rousing and was well received.

On May 30, 2017, Barber was arrested after refusing to leave theNorth Carolina State Legislative Buildingduring a protest over health care legislation. The following month, a state magistrate banned Barber and the other protesters from entering the Legislative Building. Barber and his lawyers contend that the ban is unconstitutional, because thestate constitutionguarantees citizens the right to assemble to communicate with their legislators.

In May 2017, Barber announced he would step down from the state NAACP presidency to lead "a new 'Poor People's Campaign' ",namedPoor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revivalin honour of the original 1968 campaign founded byMartin Luther King Jr.

In July 2021, Barber called for a "season of nonviolent direct action" to bring attention to threats to democracy in the U.S.. He was arrested alongside hundreds of others in Washington, D.C., on August 2 in a peaceful protest for voting rights and higher wages.

Recognitions

Barber meeting with SenatorKamala Harrisin 2018

Barber was awarded the 2006Juanita Jackson Mitchell,Esq. Award for legal activism, the highest award in the NAACP for legal redress for advocacy, he was the 2008 recipient of the Thalheimer Award for most programmatic NAACP State Conference, and in 2010 he won the National NAACP Kelly M. Alexander Humanitarian Award.

North Carolina GovernorBev Perdueawarded him theOrder of the Long Leaf Pinein 2009—a North Carolina citizenship award presented to outstanding North Carolinians who have a proven record of service to the state.

In 2017, Barber was awarded an honorary doctorate fromDrew University,his alma mater, and also delivered the university's sesquicentennial address at commencement exercises. Barber was also awarded an honorary doctorate fromOccidental Collegepreceding his speech (which was also livestreamed) to students, alumni, and community members in Thorne Hall.

In 2018, Barber was named aMacArthur Fellow(popularly known as the "Genius Grant" ) for "building broad-based fusion coalitions as part of a moral movement to confront racial andeconomic inequality".

Publications

• Preaching Through Unexpected Pain(self-published)
• Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation(Chalice Press, 2014,ISBN0827244940).
• The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement(Beacon Press, 2016,ISBN0807083607)
• Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing(Beacon Press, 2018,ISBN9780807025604)
• We Are Called To Be A Movement(Workman Publishing Co., Inc., 2020),ISBN978-1-5235-1124-2
• White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy(WW Norton & Co, 2024),ISBN978-1-3240-9487-6

Further reading

• "Rev. Barber, The Voice Behind Moral Mondays".Chapelboro (WCHL).June 25, 2013.
• "The Rev. William Barber leads a new era of progressive politics in North Carolina",Raleigh-Cary-Durham-Chapel HillIndy Week,July 24, 2013
• Anthea Butler, "The Black Church: From Prophecy to Prosperity",Dissent magazine,Volume 61, Number 1, Winter 2014, pp. 38–41
• Jesse James De Conto, "Defending Diversity: North Carolina Churches Fight for Integrated Schools",The Christian Century,Vol. 128, No. 25
• Ann Moss Joyner and Ben Marsh, "Institutionalizing Disparities in Education: A Case Study of Segregation in Wayne County, North Carolina High Schools",Interactions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies7(1) 2011
• Joshua Cristobal Alex, Carey Alexander, Tanene Allison, and Genevieve Gazon, "Why We Can't Wait: Reversing the Retreat on Civil Rights",30N.C. Central Law Review224 (2007–2008).

External links

• Speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention,CNN videoandtranscript at Quotes of the Day
• AppearancesonC-SPAN
• Greenleaf Christian Church