It was the work Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t get to finish.
And some say, even got him killed.
But Rev. Dr. William Barber says he is more determined than ever to change America by taking on poverty and racial injustice, whatever hell comes his way.
Dr. Barber is the activist, preacher and former NAACP leader, who is leading a revival of The Poor People’s Campaign, originally started by Dr. King 50 years ago, which is an interracial national movement seeking to restore voting rights, promote living wages and end racial violence.
In an interview with theGrio before midterm elections, Dr. Barber called out what he says is a dangerous movement he’s actively working against: Christian nationalism.
“It’s a false moral narrative that basically says if you’re against abortion, for prayer in schools, against the gay community, for guns, that that’s somehow a Godly position,” Dr. Barber told theGrio.
“What bothers me is that these interlocking injustices are not getting as much attention as they should. Even in so-called liberal and progressive arenas.”
“We had 26 presidential debates in the general elections and in the primaries and not one hour was spent on voter suppression, radicalized voter suppression or poverty, Democratic or Republican… even though since 2010 we’ve had 26 states to pass voter suppression laws. That’s 54 percent of African-Americans in those 26 states…. That’s nearly 250-something electoral votes.”
“In 2013 we had the Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 vote gut the Voting Rights Act, which means since June 25, 2013, we’ve had less voting rights in America than August 6, 1965 when the Voting Rights Acts was just passed,” he continued.
“The Supreme Court threw that decision into the hands of the Congress, which means Dana, Ryan and McConnell have been refusing to fix the Voting Rights Act and restore Section 5 for over 5 years.”
“In most of the states we call ‘red’ they’re not red– they’re unorganized and voter suppression states,” Dr. Barber tells theGrio.
Take for example Georgia, where former Secretary of State Brian Kemp recently claimed victory against Stacey Abrams in the race for Governor.
“Kemp over his tenure has work to suppress over 1.2 million votes,” says Dr. Barber. “We see it everywhere.”
This fall Dr. Barber was named a MacArthur Genius Award winner, earning him national recognition for his efforts in social justice.
For a son of the civil rights movement, who went to a segregated Kindergarten classroom, the moment brought him to tears.
“I thought about my father, my mother- the first person to integrate her school- I thought about 1963- the March on Washington,” Dr. Barber told theGrio.
“In this work you get a lot of criticism— when you do something like Moral Monday- and they call it ‘Moron Monday’— find yourself getting death threats— every now and then it’s good to receive something from another source.”
The prestigious MacArthur Genius grant is $625,000, which is given out over five years in quarterly installments.
Dr. Barber says he’ll use the money to fuel work he’s already been doing through The Poor People’s Campaign, going places where he’s needed to organize, but they can’t afford to bring him.
“In most of the states we call ‘red’ they’re not red–
they’re unorganized and voter suppression states.”
“The truth is unjust and immoral movements are heavily funded,” Dr. Barber told theGrio. “Our elections now spend over 10 billion dollars in money we know about.”
“This grant is nowhere in comparison to the millions and billion spent to suppress the vote cut taxes for the greedy, block health care, undo union rights, etc.”
“So these resources will be used to enable me to continue and grow the moral work in which we are engaged in for the cause of justice.”