“We still ought to be worried about North Carolina,” Rev. Dr. William Barber II said Sunday in a ceremony honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and historian John Hope Franklin.
Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, spoke about contemporary civil rights activism as the keynote speaker in Duke’s 2015 Service of Celebration. The service is held annually in the Duke Chapel. His talk was entitled “Dignity through Dissent: Demanding Civil Rights in a Modern World.”
In the talk, Barber—who is the leader of the Moral Monday protests against actions by the N.C. state legislature—discussed the use of grassroots organizing to pursue goals such as education reform, Medicaid expansion, incarceration reform, voting rights and reproductive rights.
“Truth telling is critical—don’t be afraid of losing funders,” Barber said, calling for political leaders to work together to tell the truth in order to create social change.
Barber drew on biblical references to create a call to action in the first part of his speech. He then shifted towards drawing attention to contemporary civil rights issues. Barber placed significant emphasis on the duty to alleviate poverty.
“In the richest nation on earth we have the greatest gaps between the rich and the poor since we started collecting data five decades ago,” Barber said.
He called for a more humane approach to poverty, urging minimum wage increases and expansion of Medicaid in North Carolina.
“There is a better way we can address the realities of poverty if we see the poor as our neighbor,” Barber said.
Bruce Puckett, the director of community ministry for the Chapel, participated in the selection process that chose Barber as the keynote speaker. This year the selection was a local choice. Barber has close ties to Durham and North Carolina social issues—he received degrees from North Carolina Central University and Duke Divinity School.
“Each year we meet and discuss who potential speakers might be. We chose Reverend Barber because we knew what he’s been doing in North Carolina with the Moral Monday protests,” Puckett said.
Other speakers at the commemoration included Durham Mayor Bill Bell who praised the University for its recent appointment of Eugene Washington as Duke’s next Chancellor for Health Affairs.
President Richard Brodhead presented a call to action in his words about commemorating Franklin and King.
“Inspired by their memory it is now our work to advance their work from where we are to where we could be,” he said.
Barber concluded with an assessment of the current state social activism in America.
“I believe we are in the embryotic stages of the third reconstruction of America.” Barber said.
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