William Barber II | |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | William Joseph Barber II (1963-08-30)August 30, 1963 (age 62) Indianapolis,Indiana, U.S. |
| Denomination | Disciples of Christ |
| Spouse | Rebecca McLean |
| Occupation | minister, activist, academic |
| Education | North Carolina Central University (BA) Duke University (MDiv) Drew University (DMin) |
William J. Barber II[1] (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.[2] 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 States and the second-largest in the country.[3] He pastored Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) inGoldsboro, North Carolina, from 1993 to 2023.[2]
Barber was born inIndianapolis to Eleanor Barber and William J. Barber Sr,[4] who then moved their young family toWashington County, North Carolina, to participate in thedesegregation of 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.[5]
Barber was elected president of the local NAACP youth council in 1978, at the age of 15.[6] At 17, he becamestudent body president of 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.[5] 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 laude in 1985; aMaster of Divinity degree fromDuke University in 1989; and a doctorate fromDrew University with a concentration in public policy and pastoral care in 2003.[1][7]
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.[6]
In his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed withankylosing spondylitis, which has affected his spine ever since.[8] In December 2023, employees atAMC Theatres inGreenville refused areasonable accommodation for his condition. He had been attending a screening ofThe Color Purple with 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 Aron issued an apology the next day.[9]
Beginning in April 2013, Barber led regular "Moral Mondays" civil-rights protests in North Carolina's state capital,Raleigh.[8]The Wall Street Journal credited 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.[10] Historian and professorTimothy Tyson named 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".[11] An article in theMichigan State Law Review,[12] "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 McCrory and Republican leaders of the House and Senate", according to a 2013Huffington Post profile of him.[13] He traveled with NAACP President and CEOBenjamin Todd Jealous to meet with Georgia prison officials.[14]
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".[15]
In 2016, he delivered a speech at theDemocratic National Convention; the address was described as rousing and was well received.[16][17][18]
On May 30, 2017, Barber was arrested after refusing to leave theNorth Carolina State Legislative Building during 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 constitution guarantees citizens the right to assemble to communicate with their legislators.[19]
In May 2017, Barber announced he would step down from the state NAACP presidency to lead "a new 'Poor People's Campaign'",[20] namedPoor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival in 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.[21]
On April 28, 2025, Barber was arrested while praying in theUnited States Capitol rotunda. He had delivered a sermon on the Capitol steps and delivered a Moral Monday address at theU.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day.[22]
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 Perdue awarded him theOrder of the Long Leaf Pine in 2010—a North Carolina citizenship award presented to outstanding North Carolinians who have a proven record of service to the state.[23]
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 College preceding his speech (which was also livestreamed) to students, alumni, and community members in Thorne Hall.
In 2018, Barber was named aMacArthur Fellow for "building broad-based fusion coalitions as part of a moral movement to confront racial andeconomic inequality".[24]
Barber is a senior fellow at theKettering Foundation, an Americannon-partisan research foundation.[25]
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