Rev. William Barber tells Black Press: “Bowing down is not an option”

Reverend William Barber II, president of the North Carolina state chapter of the NAACP, delivered an electrifying speech during the 2017 NNPA Mid-Winter Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)
Reverend William Barber II, president of the North Carolina state chapter of the NAACP, delivered an electrifying speech during the 2017 NNPA Mid-Winter Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA)

Reverend William Barber, the president of the North Carolina state chapter of the NAACP and leader of the Moral Mondays Movement, delivered a rousing keynote address to open the 2017 Mid-Winter Conference of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
The theme of the conference was “Strengthening Black-owned Newspapers through Training, Innovation and Technology.” The NNPA partnered with General Motors, Chevrolet, Ford Motor Company, Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to host the conference; Volkswagen, Ascension, Coca-Cola, and the American Association for Cancer Research supported the event as sponsors.
During his speech titled, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” Rev. Barber tackled voter suppression in the aftermath of Shelby v. Holder, White evangelicalism and the current political environment in the age of “alternative facts.”
Noting that President Woodrow Wilson played the White supremacist propaganda film “Birth of a Nation” in the Oval office in 1911, Barber said that Trump’s ascension and election is not an anomaly in American history.
“This is not the first time that White supremacy has occupied The White House. This is not the first time that America has elected a racist egomaniac,” said Rev. Barber, reminding the audience that President Wilson, a former college president, played “Birth” to signal that Reconstruction was over. “Education doesn’t necessarily get racism out of you.”
To a chorus of “Amens,” Rev. Barber said that the one thing that we have to first decide to do in this moment is that bowing down is not an option.

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