Barber was born in Indianapolis to Eleanor Barber and William J. Barber, Sr, who then moved their young family to Washington County, North Carolina to participate in the desegregation 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. Barber was elected president of the local NAACP youth council in 1978, at the age of 15. At 17, he became student 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. He then enrolled at North Carolina Central University and became student government president at age 19. He 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. In 1984, he met a first-year NCCU student, Rebecca McLean, at a march in support of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign; they married three years later. In his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, which has affected his spine ever since.
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, 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 as Pat McCrory and Republican leaders of the House and Senate," according to a 2013 Huffington Post profile of him. He traveled with NAACP President and CEOBenjamin Todd Jealous to meet with Georgia prison officials. In 2014, he founded Repairers of the Breach, a 501 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; the address was described as rousing and was well-received. 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 state 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'", named in honour of the original 1968 campaign founded by Martin Luther King.
Recognitions
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 GovernorBev 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. 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 to students, alumni, and community members in Thorne Hall. In 2018, Barber was named a MacArthur Fellow for "building broad-based fusion coalitions as part of a moral movement to confront racial and economic inequality."
Publications
Preaching Through Unexpected Pain
Forward Together: A Moral Message for the Nation.
The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement
Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing
