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Reverend William J. Barber II
President, Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign & NYT Best-Selling Author
Reverend William J. Barber II
President, Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign & NYT Best-Selling Author
Biography
“William Barber is the closest person we have to Martin Luther King, Jr. in our midst." — Dr. Cornel West
The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Executive Board Member of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, and Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.
He is the author of four books: We Are Called To Be A Movement; Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation. His new book White Poverty: How Exposing Myths about Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy due to be release June 2024.
Rev. Dr. Barber served as senior pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ for thirty years and as president of the North Carolina NAACP from 2006-2017, and on the National NAACP Board of Directors from 2008-2020. He is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim in 2013 with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly. In 2015, he established Repairers of the Breach to train communities in moral movement building through the Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute and Summit Trainings (MPOLIS). In 2018, he co-anchored the relaunch of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival— reviving the 1968 Poor People's Campaign under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and organized by SCLS, worker's rights movement, women's rights movement, religious leaders, and people of all races to fight poverty in the U.S.
A highly sought-after speaker, Rev. Dr. Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the homily at the 59th Inaugural Prayer Service for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Vatican at Pope Francis's encyclical "Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home" and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In June 2018, he addressed the 5th Uni Global Union World Congress to more than 25 countries.
Dr. Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Nation magazine. He was named one of 2020's BET 100 Entertainers and Innovators and one of the 2019 recipients of the North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor. He is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient and a 2015 recipient of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award and the Puffin Award.
Dr. Barber has had twelve honorary degrees conferred upon him. He earned a Bachelor's Degree from North Carolina Central University, a Master of Divinity from Duke University, and a Doctorate from Drew University with a concentration in Public Policy and Pastoral Care.
Speaker Videos
Poor People’s Campaign: How Rev. William J. Barber Uses His Faith To Fight | TIME
Poor People’s Campaign | PBS NewsHour
Bishop Barber Inaugural Homily
Speech Topics
We Are Called to Be a Movement
For years the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign has been one of the most gifted moral fusion organizers, strategists and orators in the country. As an indispensable figure in the public policy and public theology landscape, he believes it’s time for everyone who cares about the state of our nation to heed the call and join forces to redeem the soul of America. It's time to come together and renounce the politics of rejection, division and greed, and to lift up the common good, move up to higher ground and revive the heart of democracy. During this inspiring keynote, the Rev. Barber makes an impassioned argument with a message that could not be clearer: It's time for change and the time needs you.
Testimonials
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