William Barber II

Education and family

Barber was elected president of the NAACP's youth council at age 15, president of his high school's student body at 17, and student government president at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) at 19. Barber received his bachelor's degree in political science from NCCU, cum laude; a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University; and a doctorate from Drew University with a concentration in public policy and pastoral care.

Activism

Beginning in April 2013, Barber led regular "Moral Mondays" civil-rights protests in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh. The Wall Street Journal credited Barber's NAACP chapter with forming a coalition in 2007 named Historic Thousands on Jones Street People's Assembly (HKonJ), composed of 93 North Carolina advocacy groups. "With this changing demographic, we had to operate in coalition," Barber was quoted as saying. Historian and professor Timothy 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".. An article in the Michigan 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 McCrory and Republican leaders of the House and Senate," according to a 2013 Huffington Post profile of him. He is active at the highest levels of the NAACP, e.g. traveling with the NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to meet with Georgia prison officials.

In 2014, he founded Repairers of the Breach, a 501c3 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 the Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton. The talk was called "remarkable" and "riveting".

On May 30, 2017, Barber was arrested after refusing to leave the North 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 the NC constitution guarantees 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.'"

Recognition and publications

Barber was awarded the 2006 Juanita 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 Governor Bev Perdue awarded him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2009—a North Carolina citizenship award presented to outstanding North Carolinians who have a proven record of service to the state.

He is the author of a self-published book titled Preaching Through Unexpected Pain. His second book, Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation (ISBN 0827244940), was published in October 2014. His third book, The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement (ISBN 0807083607), was published in January 2016.

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