Civil Rights Leader Rev. William Barber Awarded MacArthur Grant

[appalachiablue]

The Rev William Barber, the North Carolina pastor, national civil rights leader and anti-poverty activist has won a 2018 MacArthur “genius” grant – one of 25 people to receive the prestigious fellowship this year, it was announced on Thursday.

The MacArthur Fellows Program, popularly known as the “genius grant”, annually gives a series of $625,000, no-strings-attached awards to people the institution finds to be extraordinarily talented and creative in different fields.

Barber is the longtime pastor of Greenleaf Christian church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and a leader of the new Poor People’s Campaign – the modern incarnation of a campaign for fairer living standards launched by Martin Luther King Jr before his death by assassination in 1968.

Barber has been hailed as a leader of the emerging, modern “religious left” – a label he rejects. “There is no religious left and religious right,” Barber told the Guardian this spring. “There is only a moral center. And the scripture is very clear about where you have to be to be in the moral center – you have to be on the side of the poor, the working, the sick, the immigrant.” -More...

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/04/macarthur-grant-winners-william-barber-genius-grant-list



Rev. William Barber at Moral Mondays rally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barber_II

[brush]

1. Woohoo! Well deserved. When he speaks you listen at the marvelous, flowing logic of his words even..

if you're not religious.

[stuffmatters]

2. Excellent choice. Rev Barber is so important for all of us.