Person

William J. Barber II

Related Excerpts

The Rev. William Barber, the Rev. Liz Theoharis, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson gather outside of the U.S. Capitol during a Poor People’s Campaign rally in June, 2018.

The Social Gospel Roots of the American Religious Left

A review of Gary Dorrien's new book, “Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel.”
Reverend William J. Barber II leads a Moral Mondays rally in New York, 2015.
partner

Shaping a New Poor People’s Campaign

Rather than seeking a national solution, activists are taking to states across America to combat the deep roots of poverty.
William Barber III standing in front of Vera Brown Farm.

Rebuilding the Homestead

How Black landowners in eastern North Carolina are recovering generational wealth lost to industry encroachment.
Illustration of T. Thomas Fortune

Abolition Democracy’s Forgotten Founder

While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.
People signing the declaration of independence

Our 250-Year Fight for Multiracial Democracy

We say we’re for it. We’ve never truly had it. These next few years will determine its fate.
Worshipers at a Pentecostal church, Chicago, 1941

A Praise House of Many Mansions

In a book and documentary series, Henry Louis Gates Jr. offers a wide-ranging tour of Black religion in America.
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.

Fighting to Vote

Voting rights are often associated with the Civil Rights Movement, but this fight extends throughout American history.

The Legacy of Black Reconstruction

Du Bois's "Black Reconstruction in America" showed that the black freedom struggle has always been one for radical democracy.

The Urgency of a Third Reconstruction

The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment marked a turning point in U.S. history. Yet 150 years later, its promises remain unfulfilled.
original

Resurrection City, 2.0

A generation ago, historians dismissed the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. On the eve of a reboot, we can see it in a different light.

Martin Luther King Jr.: 50 Years Later

Activists today are taking up Dr. King’s mantle and reviving the Poor People’s Campaign.

When the South Was the Most Progressive Region in America

Elections in the late 1860s gave birth to real, if short-lived, interracial democracy—the likes of which America had never seen.