NC’s Rev. Barber, Patti LaBelle to headline Biden inaugural prayer. How to watch.
After Joe Biden is sworn in as president Wednesday, the spotlight at his inaugural prayer service Thursday will be on Rev. William Barber II, the Goldsboro preacher who has become a nationally known civil rights figure.
Barber will deliver the homily for the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service, the Biden transition team announced Tuesday in a press release.
Additionally, there will be musical performances by Patti LaBelle, Josh Groban and gospel group The Clark Sisters.
Among the other speakers at the Thursday prayer event will be Rev. Robert W. Lee, a North Carolina pastor and descendant of Confederate general Robert E. Lee who has advocated for the removal of Confederate monuments.
In August of 2017, the News & Observer reported, Lee condemned the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that centered around a statue there of his famous ancestor. Three weeks later, The Charlotte Observer reported that Lee was leaving the Winston-Salem church where he had been a pastor “after some in the congregation expressed discomfort over some of the statements he has been making.”
How to watch Joe Biden’s inauguration prayer service
The service at the Washington National Cathedral will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, and people who want to watch it can do so at www.cathedral.org or www.bideninaugural.org/watch.
People who want to watch Biden’s main inaugural event on Wednesday can also do so at the inauguration website above, or on AT&T U-verse channel 212 or on AT&T DIRECTV channel 201. Major news networks will also be covering the inaugural festivities, which will go throughout the day Wednesday including Biden’s swearing-in at noon. There are also some events Tuesday. A full schedule can be found at www.bideninaugural.org/schedule
Rev. Barber on national stage
Barber rose to fame in North Carolina a decade ago, and remains widely liked by liberals and disliked by conservatives. After Republicans took control of the state legislature in 2011 and then gained the governor’s office in 2013, Barber, then the leader of the North Carolina NAACP, organized regular marches called “Moral Mondays.”
Those brought thousands of Democratic protesters to downtown Raleigh to protest new government policies like the repeal of the Racial Justice Act and changes to state voting laws that were eventually struck down as being racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. The protests, and his arrest during one of them, also led to him being banned from entering the Legislative Building for more than two years.
Barber gained national attention at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, as the party formally nominated Hillary Clinton to run for president. Barber was given 10 minutes to speak and went viral, becoming “somewhat of an overnight celebrity after his energetic speech,” The News & Observer reported at the time.
“It’s possible to shock a bad heart and revive the pulse,” he said in that 2016 speech. “In this season when some want to harden and stop the heart of our democracy, we are being called like our foremothers and fathers to be the moral defibrillators of our time.”
He now leads a group called Repairers of the Breach that’s headquartered in Goldsboro, where Barber also remains pastor at Greenleaf Christian Church. In the 2020 Democratic primary, at least three candidates — Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg — came to Goldsboro to visit Barber and his church. And during the general election, Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, also visited Goldsboro.
Many of the specific issues he advocated for in his 2016 speech are still issues that may be at the forefront of the Biden administration, including the Black Lives Matter movement, a higher minimum wage, LGBT rights and gun control. Barber also used that speech to criticize what he saw as hypocrisy in some Christian communities.
“In my heart I’m troubled, and I’m worried by the way faith is cynically used by some to serve hate, fear, racism and greed,” Barber said.
While Barber’s message will be the primary focus of the event Thursday, the Biden team said in a press release, there will also be messages from Jewish, Islamic, Sikh and other religious leaders, in addition to numerous Christian denominations.
“The National Prayer Service is an important tradition for our nation and for President Biden, who has always been a man guided deeply by his faith,” said Tony Allen, CEO of Biden’s inaugural committee. “The program announced today will honor the role of faith in our country, and provide a moment to reflect on the unprecedented challenges we face, as we enter this new American chapter of healing to beat the pandemic, build back our economy better, and unify our country.”
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 2:54 PM.
