Social justice leader Rev. Barber delivers letter to nation, holds news conference Sunday amidst police killing and protests Social justice leader Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II will deliver a letter to the nation in the midst of a police killing and protests on Pentecost Sunday morning.
The delivery of the letter will be live-streamed across the nation after Rev. Barber was asked by many to share a moral perspective on this moment.
It was less than a week ago that a video was released showing an African American man, George Floyd, drawing his last breaths as a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck.
“The lethal violence of racist officers is only one manifestation of the systemic racism that is choking the life out of American democracy,” Barber said. “This moment demands that all who care about the American experiment in democracy listen closely and deeply to the uprising that is itself a collective gasp for life.”
A remote and in-person news conference will be held from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday from Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where Rev. Barber is the pastor. Reporters can cover the news conference at the church at 2110 N. William St. in Goldsboro. They also can ask questions by registering here.
After you register, you will receive a confirmation and email with information about joining the webinar. Rev. Barber is president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. “As a pastor, I turn to Scripture in times of crisis, and I have prayed with the prophet Isaiah that God would open my ears to offer a word that might sustain those who are distressed,” Barber said. “I have prayed with Jeremiah that we will not try to heal the wound of the people lightly and that we will not fail to recognize how the wounds of poverty demand social surgery and a strong antibiotic of truth to cleanse a septic democracy.
In the church we are preparing for the season of Pentecost, when we recall how God’s spirit allowed people from various backgrounds to each hear the truth in their own tongue. I pray this letter might be likewise received.”
The Poor People’s Campaign:
A National Call for Moral Revival, is building a generationally transformative digital gathering called the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington on June 20, 2020. At that assembly, we will demand that both major political parties address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism by implementing our Moral Agenda.
