This Sunday, Oct. 5 in Durham, North Carolina, Reverend Doctor William J. Barber II will be presented with the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s 2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award.
 Rev. Barber, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, N.C., and president of the N.C. state branch of the NAACP, is the charismatic leader who inexorably challenged the North Carolina state legislature with multiple acts of civil disobedience in a campaign for social justice. Week after week in 2013, in a fusion movement that came to be known as Moral Mondays, Rev. Barber led peaceful demonstrations against North Carolina’s legislature to protest infractions to voting rights, cuts in social programs, regressive changes in tax legislation, the repeal of the Racial Justice Act, and restrictions to abortion rights.
In his inspiring speeches and public appearances, Rev. Barber has repeatedly called for the participation of individuals who, in his words, are “standing in the gap.” The phrase comes from the Book of Ezekial, referring to God’s search for “someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land… to stand in the gap in the wall.” In Rev. Barber’s vision, each one of us, in our own way, is called upon to stand in the gap by seeking moral justice and resisting an oppressive power system that enforces structural violence and undermines collective security and peace.
 “Somebody must, with moral authority, stand in the gap and speak the inconvenient truth…somebody must expose the weakness produced in our society when political power is used to harm rather than help the people. It is up to the moral community to speak up for the poor, those who are hurting, and those who have been oppressed and excluded.”
In leading the Moral Mondays movement—which now has spread from North Carolina to several other states where human rights are in jeopardy (including Ferguson MO, where a "#MoralMonday Civil Disobedience" day of action will be held next Monday, Oct. 13)—Rev. Barber has mobilized the support of tens of thousands of people with diverse interests and concerns to press together for justice in public education, health care, living wages, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, labor rights, and voting rights. Those involved are working to end racial and class divisions, homophobia, ignorance, and environmental degradation, and their various commitments have been effectively connected into one common platform and movement.
 Rev. Barber’s commitment to working for social justice dramatically increased when he was thirty years old. Due to a crippling disease, he lost the use of his legs and was told by doctors that he would never walk again. In a personal transformation that occurred at a moment of deepest despair, he was inspired with the knowledge that he must listen to the call of God, determined to recover from his physical handicap, and dedicated his life to social justice.
Now able to walk with a cane, Rev. Barber recalls that “The more I stood for what was right, the stronger my body got.”
As the recipient of FOR’s Martin Luther King Jr. Award, Rev. Barber is being honored as an individual whose work for peace and justice is a life-long commitment. The Award was established by FOR in 1979 to celebrate persons or groups working in the United States in the tradition of Rev. Dr. King. It will be presented to Rev. Barber this Sunday, October 5, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. at an event at the Hayti Heritage Center as part of the Durham Reads Together festivities for the best-selling memoir March by Representative John Lewis. The program features a conversation between Congressman Lewis and Frank Stasio, host of WUNC’s “The State of Things,” about the civil rights movement and the 1963 March on Washington.
The event will begin with a presentation of the King Award to Reverend Barber by Congressman Lewis. FOR’s director of national organizing, Ethan Vesely-Flad, will also participate in the presentation. For more details about the free, public event please reply to this email or see the Durham Reads Together website.
** Photo of Rev. Dr. William Barber II courtesy of Rev. Barber; photos of Moral Mondays mobilization in Raleigh NC and Rev. Barber at Moral Monday gathering courtesy of Ethan Vesely-Flad. |
