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william barber
'Our Democracy Is Not for Sale': Bishop Barber Sues Over NC GOP's Gerrymandering
“We’ve seen this pattern before—the use of redistricting and voting laws to divide, diminish, and deny," said Bishop William Barber II.
Oct 23, 2025
Calling the North Carolina Republican Party's new congressional district map "surgical racism with surgical precision," Bishop William J. Barber II of Repairers of the Breach was in Raleigh Thursday announcing a lawsuit challenging the redistricting effort—pledging that the state's voters will "challenge gerrymandering in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box."
"This is a direct attack on the state's Black Belt district and marginalized communities," said Barber at a press conference announcing the legal challenge, a day after the state House of Representatives approved the new map in a party-line vote.
The new map, which was passed by the state Senate earlier this week and cannot be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein under state law, will likely give the GOP an additional seat in the US House after the 2026 midterm elections.
President Donald Trump has called for mid-decade redistricting efforts by the GOP in states including Missouri and Texas as well as North Carolina, with state Republicans heeding his demands.
North Carolina's new map will likely give Republicans 11 of the state's 14 districts, by moving some Black voters out of the 1st District and into the 3rd District. Had the new map been in place in 2024, Trump would likely have won 55% of the vote in the new 1st District in 2024, up from the 51% he won.
Barber denounced the redistricting efforts across the country as "political robbery" by a party that wants "to rob people of their rights through this racially based gerrymandering... so that they can give power or keep power in the US Congress to engage in political violence," including by cutting healthcare and blocking the passage of living wages.
“We’ve seen this pattern before—the use of redistricting and voting laws to divide, diminish, and deny," said Barber. "But the truth is simple: When you steal people’s representation, you steal their healthcare, their wages, and their future. That’s why we will fight back... to make clear that in North Carolina, and across America, the people’s will cannot be gerrymandered out of existence."
Barber said Republicans in the state Legislature are "gambling" in order to win another seat, instead of trying to win over voters.
"They're saying, 'Let's move this county over here, let's move this county over here,' he said at the press conference. "Black voters in Congressional District 1 make up approximately 40% of the population, and there's a growing Latino population that makes up 7%... Black communities, Latino communities, and rural, working-class, poor white voters, if the districts are fair, have the power to build a fusion electorate that can overcome the greedy oligarchs' will to control elections in our state."
Along with filing a legal action against state lawmakers to challenge the legality of the map, Barber said Repairers of the Breach will hold a "Mass Moral Fusion Meeting" and public hearing on November 2.
“If they won’t hold public hearings, we will,” said Barber. “This is our Edmund Pettus Bridge moment... Black, white, and brown together—because our democracy is not for sale.”
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Moral Monday Protests Decry 'Leaders Manipulating Christianity to Push Deadly Policies'
“When poor families are stripped of healthcare and lifesaving resources—when the vulnerable are sacrificed for greed—we cannot remain silent," said Rev. Dr. Hanna Broome.
Sep 29, 2025
As the United States faces looming Republican government shutdown and as harmful impacts of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July by President Donald Trump begin to affect millions of Americans, clergy and impacted people and rallied Monday in eight states "to expose how leaders are twisting and warping Christianity to push policies that hurt poor and vulnerable communities."
The latest round of Moral Monday rallies—led by Bishop William J. Barber II and Repairers of the Breach—took place across the US South to highlight the deadly impact of the OBBA, which organizers are calling the "Big Ugly Destructive Deadly Bill."
The law, which was signed by Trump on July 4, made the deepest cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in history while slashing billions from other essential social programs to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. The OBBA ends health coverage and food assistance for millions of Americans at a time when more than 47 million Americans—including 1 in 5 US children—are living in food insecure households.
Experts say the cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other social safety net programs will lead to 17 million people losing healthcare and 51,000 deaths. To highlight this staggering figure, faith leaders delivered 51 caskets to lawmakers' offices across the South.
Speakers at Moral Monday rallies also underscored how GOP policymakers and right-wing commentators "are increasingly pushing a warped version of Christianity to advance policies that hurt the poor and vulnerable."
"In just the past few weeks, especially following the horrific death of Charlie Kirk, our nation has seen an even greater surge in this weaponization of faith," said Repairers of the Breach. "Left unchecked, leaders will continue to use the banner of 'Christianity' to consolidate power and pursue their deadly agenda."
Barber said: "Nearly every senator who voted for Washington’s big, deadly, destructive bill identifies as a Christian. But when I read the Bible, I see nothing that would support stripping people of basic healthcare or food. I see words that tell us to love our neighbors and uplift the vulnerable."
"Policymakers have made clear that they are willing to sacrifice the poor for the consolidation of power," he added.
Speaking in Montgomery, Alabama, Repairers of the Breach national director of religious affairs Rev. Dr. Hanna R. Broome said that “when poor families are stripped of healthcare and lifesaving resources—when the vulnerable are sacrificed for greed—we cannot remain silent."
“My faith calls me to love my neighbor, not abandon them to suffering," Broome added. "Nations will be judged by how we treat the poor and vulnerable, not by our military might or [gross domestic product]."
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'We Will Organize Those People,' Anti-Poverty Crusader William Barber Says of Millions Set to Lose Medicaid
"They will not kill us and our communities without a fight."
Jul 02, 2025
Armed with 51 caskets and a new federal analysis, faith leaders and people who would be directly impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill got arrested protesting in Washington, D.C. this week and pledged to organize the millions of Americans set to lose their health insurance under the package.
Citing Capitol Police, The Hill reported Monday that "a total of 38 protestors were arrested, including 24 detained at the intersection of First and East Capitol streets northeast and another 14 arrested in the Capitol Rotunda. Those taken into custody were charged with crowding, obstructing, and incommoding."
The "Moral Monday" action was organized because of the "dangerous and deadly cuts" in the budget reconciliation package, which U.S. Senate Republicans—with help from Vice President JD Vance—sent to the House of Representatives Tuesday and which the lower chamber took up for consideration Wednesday.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the megabill would result in an estimated 17 million Americans becoming uninsured over the next decade: 11.8 million due to the Medicaid cuts, 4.2 million people due to expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits, and another 1 million due to other policies.
"This is policy violence. This is policy murder," Bishop William Barber said at Monday's action, which began outside the U.S. Supreme Court followed by a march to the Capitol. "That's why we brought these caskets today—because in the first year of this bill, as it is, the estimates are that 51,000 people will die."
"If you know that, and still pass it, that's not a mistake," added Barber, noting that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)—one of three Republican senators who ultimately opposed the bill—had said before the vote that his party was making a mistake on healthcare.
Moral Mondays originated in Tillis' state a dozen years ago, to protest North Carolina Republicans' state-level policymaking, led by Barber, who is not only a bishop but also president of the organization Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
This past Monday, Barber vowed that if federal lawmakers kick millions of Americans off their healthcare with this megabill, "we will organize those people," according to Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
In partnership with IPS and the Economic Policy Institute, Repairers of the Breach on Monday published The High Moral Stakes of Budget Reconciliation fact sheet, which examines the version of the budget bill previously passed by the House. The document highlights cuts to health coverage, funding for rural hospitals, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The fact sheet also points out that while slashing programs for the poor, the bill would give tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations, plus billions of dollars to the Pentagon and Trump's mass deportation effort.
"Instead of inflicting policy violence on the most vulnerable, Congress should harness America's abundant wealth to create a moral economy that works for all of us," the publication asserts. "By fairly taxing the wealthy and big corporations, reducing our bloated military budget, and demilitarizing immigration policy, we could free up more than enough public funds to ensure we can all survive and thrive."
"As our country approaches its 250th anniversary," it concludes, "we have no excuse for not investing our national resources in ways that reflect our Constitutional values: to establish justice, domestic tranquility, real security, and the general welfare for all."
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