The Rev. William Barber II is planning a major “Moral Monday” gathering to take place next month outside the United States Supreme Court after being arrested in the Capitol Rotunda for staging an unlawful demonstration.
Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and president of the group Repairers of the Breach, announced on X the “Moral Mondays in DC” gathering slated for June 2 in front of the Supreme Court.
“We invite all people of good will, especially those impacted by the immoral cuts to the federal budget, to plan to join us in DC on June 2,” he posted. “This is not a time for only partisan response. We need a moral movement.”
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The event has the endorsement of multiple progressive Mainline Protestant denominations, including the Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, and the Presbyterian Church (USA).
It also has the backing of the National Council of Churches, Sojourners, Red Letter Christians, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Urban League, and the Masjid Muhammad.
News of the Moral Monday event comes after Barber and other progressive faith activists were arrested while gathering for an unauthorized protest in the Capitol Rotunda.
Last month, Barber, preacher Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and St. Francis Springs Prayer Center Director Steve Swayne held a prayer rally at the rotunda in protest against the proposed budget before Congress.
The activists say the proposed budget includes severe cuts to various federal welfare programs that endanger the well-being of millions of Americans.
Shortly after the activists began to pray out loud, Capitol police surrounded the individuals, expelled other people who were at the rotunda and then arrested the three activists.
A Capitol Police spokesperson told The News & Observer that they were detained “for demonstrating inside the Congressional Buildings, which is not allowed in any form, to include but not limited to sitting, kneeling, group praying, singing, chanting, etc.”
“In this case, they started praying quietly and then began to pray out loud,” the spokesperson explained. “That is when we gave them multiple warnings to stop or they would be arrested. Three people didn’t stop.”
Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove later confirmed their release in a statement posted on their shared blog, and thanked the Capitol police for their service, stressing that they did not object to them.
The two contended that $1.5 trillion cannot be cut from the budget without “slashing Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, Head Start, Section 8, and other programs they claimed are “life-saving and life-sustaining.”
“We came to the Capitol rotunda to pray for representatives who currently support this immoral budget to see the danger of policy that kills and choose life. We came believing that God can take out a heart of stone and give anyone a heart of flesh,” they stated.
“That is why we chose to pray in the Capitol rotunda yesterday. And that is the prayer we hope to embody with a growing and expanding moral movement in this nation until ‘justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.'”
A former NAACP leader, Barber garnered national attention in 2013 for his weekly “Moral Monday” protests outside the North Carolina Legislature over his objections with various policy proposals.
His organization, the Poor People’s Campaign, hosted a “Moral Action Congress” in Washington, D.C., in 2019, where nine leading Democratic 2020 presidential hopefuls, including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, gave remarks.
The Campaign also led the “Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington” in June 2022.
