Rev. Dr. William Barber: ‘Nothing Would Be More Tragic

Rev. Dr. William Barber: ‘Nothing Would Be More Tragic Than For Us To Turn Back Now’


Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of Repairers of the Breach and a recipient of the 2018 North Star Award delivered a rousing acceptance speech during this year’s National CARES Mentoring Movement Gala.

During his remarks, Rev. Barber told Black America, “My brothers and sisters we are a people that have come from worst than what we see now and nothing would be more tragic than for us to turn back now.”

“Don’t you ever let it come out of your mouth that we’ve never seen anything this bad; that we’ve never seen racism in the White House.” Barber continued, “Don’t you even dare let your children hear you utter that because we came through 250 years of slavery and 100 years of legalized Jim Crow — nothing would be more tragic than for us to turn back now.”

Rev. Barber diagnosed what the world is witnessing in the White House and Congress a s a “moral malady.”

“We’re going backwards rather than forwards,” Rev. Barber said. “The Voting Rights Act has been gutted. 52 years later we have less voting rights than we had August 6th 1965." 

In addressing poverty in America, the President of the Repairers of the Breach said, “There are over 140 million people [that are] poor and working poor in this country. The majority of them are white, not Black. The majority of them are women and children.”

In closing, Barber announced a 40-day build up to an initiative called the "Souls of Poor Folks" that will confront lawmakers and "reset the moral narrative."