Moral Mondays leader William Barber: ‘Mourn and protest’

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II spoke three times Thursday at the UUA General Assembly in Columbus. “We must mourn and protest violence,” he said in his morning address to a general session, whoever the victims are. He drew especially strong applause for his criticism of the NRA and his praise for Rep. John Lewis’s congressional sit-in demanding gun reforms. “Those of us who have in our history the commonality of suffering from hate, we know that those who won the day are those who chose love in the midst of hate.”

Barber also spoke about the “third reconstruction” during a Thursday afternoon workshop, and then joined racial justice activists and interfaith leaders at the State of Emergence rally.

(UU World published an excerpt from Barber’s book, The Third Reconstruction, last year.)