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Meet The Preacher Behind Moral Mondays

Meet The Preacher Behind Moral Mondays
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Editor, Black Voices

Rev. William Barber, president of the N.C. chapter of the NAACP pauses as he speaks to protestors and demonstrators outside the House and Senate chambers at the state legislature during the NAACP-led "Moral Monday" protests at the General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, July 1, 2013. The rally this week highlighted the first day federal unemployment benefits that were cut off for 70,000 people. North Carolina is the first state to disqualify itself from collecting extended benefits as state leaders choose to pay down a debt to the federal government faster. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Rev. William Barber, president of the N.C. chapter of the NAACP pauses as he speaks to protestors and demonstrators outside the House and Senate chambers at the state legislature during the NAACP-led "Moral Monday" protests at the General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, July 1, 2013. The rally this week highlighted the first day federal unemployment benefits that were cut off for 70,000 people. North Carolina is the first state to disqualify itself from collecting extended benefits as state leaders choose to pay down a debt to the federal government faster. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the Reverend William Barber II reclined uncomfortably in a chair in his office, sipping bottled water as he recovered from two hours of strenuous preaching. When he was in his early 20s, Barber was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful arthritic condition affecting the spine. Still wearing his long black robes, the 50-year-old minister recounted how, as he'd proclaimed in a rolling baritone from the pulpit that morning, "a crippled preacher has found his legs."

It began a few days before Easter 2013, recalled Barber, pastor at the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). "On Maundy Thursday, they chose to crucify voting rights," he said.

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