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. His most recent book, 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 to 2017, as well as on the National NAACP Board of Directors from 2008 to 2020. He is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement, which 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 helped relaunch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, building on the 1968 campaign organized by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., women’s rights advocates, labor leaders, clergy, and people of all races to confront poverty in America. As a moral leader committed to nonviolent civil disobedience, Bishop Barber has been arrested more than fifteen times while standing alongside communities impacted by systemic racism, poverty, and injustice.

A highly sought-after speaker, Bishop Barber has delivered keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention. He is one of the few preachers in the nation’s history invited to deliver the homily at an Inaugural Prayer Service, speaking at the 59th service honoring President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He has also addressed global audiences, including gatherings at the Vatican around 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, speaking to delegates representing workers from more than 25 countries.

Bishop Barber is regularly featured in national media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, NNPA, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. He was named one of BET’s 100 Entertainers and Innovators in 2020 and received the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor, in 2019. He is a 2018 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship and received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award and the Puffin Award in 2015.

Drawing on decades of leadership at the intersection of faith, public policy, and grassroots organizing, Bishop Barber brings a powerful moral voice to audiences across the country. He speaks with universities, faith communities, labor organizations, civic groups, and policy leaders about moral leadership, democracy, economic justice, and the power of collective action to transform society. Bishop William J. Barber II works in partnership with APB Speakers for speaking engagements worldwide.

Bishop Barber has received twelve honorary doctorate degrees. He earned his high school diploma from Plymouth High School, 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. He also studied through a special fellowship at MIT. Read Less ^