Parks-King lecture: "Reviving American Democracy" with The Rev. Dr. William Barber II

William Barber gave Yale Divinity School’s annual Parks-King Lecture Thursday, Feb. 24. Dr. Barber spoke on “Reviving American Democracy: Why We Must Have a Moral Reset and Mass Movement to Shift the Narrative in American Public Life.”
The Rev. Dr. William Barber II is President and Senior Lecturer at Repairers of the Breach; Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival; Bishop in the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries; Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary; and Pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Goldsboro, N.C. He has authored or coauthored four books: We Are Called To Be A Movement; Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement; and Forward Together: A Moral Message for The Nation. Barber is also the architect of the Moral Movement, which began with weekly Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013 and relaunched in August 2020 under the banner of the Poor People’s Campaign.
In his Parks-King Lecture, Barber offers a moral analysis of current debates in public policy, diagnosing a crisis of possibility in American public life and demonstrating the need for mass action to reshape the moral narrative. Drawing on historical examples, he argues that such a moral reset is not only possible but has been a necessary prelude to every major stride toward a more perfect union in U.S. history.
Established in 1983 in honor of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Parks-King Lecture is dedicated to bringing the contributions of African American scholars, social theorists, pastors, and social activists to YDS and the wider New Haven community.