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

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Biography

“William Barber is the closest person we have to Martin Luther King, Jr. in our midst." — Dr. Cornel West

Bishop William J. Barber II is President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, 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. Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, and a Kettering Foundation Senior Fellow.

He is the author of five 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. White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy was released in June 2024.

Bishop 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 Pour People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival—reviving the 1968 Poor People's Campaign organized by women's rights movement, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., worker's rights movement, religious leaders, and people of all races to fight poverty in the U.S. As a moral leader Bishop William Barber II engaging in non-violent civil disobedience has been arrested more than 15 times in various states standing up with those who have been marginalized by systematic racism, poverty, and injustice.

A highly sought-after speaker, Bishop Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention, one of few preachers in nations history to be invited to give 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.

Bishop Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, NNPA, 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.

Bishop Barber has had twelve honorary doctorate degrees conferred upon him. He earned a High School degree from Plymouth High, 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. And has studied in a special fellowship at MIT.

Speaker Videos

Poor People’s Campaign: How Rev. William J. Barber Uses His Faith To Fight | TIME

Poor People’s Campaign | PBS NewsHour

Rev. Dr. William Barber - “White Poverty” & Poor People’s Campaign March | The Daily Show

Bishop Barber Inaugural Homily

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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

"Rev. Barber was extraordinary! Riveting, emotional, charismatic, motivating, are just a very small fraction of the words that could be used to describe his presentation. I had one person come up to me shortly after Rev. Barber did his presentation and said, 'you could end the conference right now and it would still be considered a great success based on that session!' As you know, I have worked with APB for many years and it is the support like we received from you that makes it an easy decision to keep returning! Thank you!"

- National Association of Social Workers