Responding to the 'Call of the Moment': An Interview with William J. Barber II.

AuthorGunn, Erik
PositionInterview

The Reverend William Barber II has emerged as a leading voice in the struggle for rights for African Americans, the poor, and other marginalized people in the United States, especially in the South. In his former role as president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, Barber led the "Moral Mondays" movement that enlisted a broad coalition of people engaged in human rights struggles.

Barber employed peaceful direct action to confront the states Republican legislative leadership and other political powers--initially over voting rights and voter suppression, but ultimately focusing on broader issues of justice for the poor and working class. And while deeply rooted in the language of faith--Barber is a minister with Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in his hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina--he has extended the reach of his "fusion coalition" movement to include other faiths as well as secular, agnostic, and atheist activists.

Barber now heads Repairers of the Breach, a multifaith, nonpartisan nonprofit group also based in North Carolina, and cochairs along with the Reverend Liz Theoharis a new Poor Peoples Campaign--a "re-engagement" of the movement of the same name that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. took up in 1967.

In late December, Barber spoke by phone with The Progressive about his involvements and how faith-based activists and organizations are responding to President Donald Trump.

Q: How would you describe the political forces that Trump has unleashed in his campaign and in the year since he took office?

William Barber: I don't so much see him as having unleashed them. Well before Trump, we have needed a revival of our deepest religious and constitutional values in this country as it relates to the issues of love, justice, the care for the least of these, the common good, the general welfare, the establishment of justice.

You could see that in the way in which [House Speaker Paul] Ryan, [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell, [Ryan's predecessor John] Boehner, and Congress refused to fix the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court gutted it [in 2013]. You could see that in the twenty-some states prior to Trump that passed voter suppression laws, which is contrary to any ethos of justice. You can see that when politicians who get free health care simply because they've been elected to be governors, Senators, or members of the House of Representatives are fighting to take health care from...

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