Bishop William J. Barber II, a figure known for his unwavering advocacy for civil rights and social justice, is once again stepping into the political fray. Despite facing significant health challenges—his legs are unsteady, he walks with canes, and he often dons a mask to protect his immune system—Barber has announced a new campaign against what he calls a "gerrymandering scheme" in North Carolina. On October 24, 2025, Barber, who serves as president and senior lecturer for Repairers of the Breach and is a professor at Yale University, declared his intent to lead a legal and grassroots fight against the state's freshly approved congressional map. He argues this redistricting plan, engineered by the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly, is designed to seize more seats for House Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections and, crucially, to eliminate one of North Carolina’s Black congressional districts.
Barber’s announcement came during a joint press conference with Forward Justice, a nonprofit focused on racial, social, and economic justice. He revealed that a lawsuit challenging the new map is in the works—though he withheld specifics until the legal filing is finalized. Alongside the legal challenge, Barber and Forward Justice are organizing a Mass Moral Fusion Meeting on November 2, 2025, where they plan to unveil more details about their anti-gerrymandering campaign. The stakes, Barber insists, couldn't be higher. "We’ve seen this pattern before," he said, as reported by Repairers of the Breach. "It’s what I call ‘surgical racism with surgical precision’—the use of redistricting and voting laws to divide, diminish, and deny the will of the people."
Barber’s critique of the new map is not just about partisan advantage. He contends that redistricting has real-life consequences that go far beyond the makeup of North Carolina’s congressional delegation. "The truth is simple: when you steal people’s representation, you steal their healthcare, their wages, and their future," Barber said, according to Repairers of the Breach. In his view, engineering districts to favor Republicans in Washington is a direct route to reinforcing a political agenda that includes cutting access to healthcare, blocking minimum wage increases, and undermining the social safety net.
Republicans in the North Carolina state legislature, who currently hold a supermajority, approved the new, veto-proof congressional map earlier in the week. The move is seen as part of a broader national trend, with North Carolina becoming the third state to answer former President Donald Trump’s call for more GOP seats in Congress. According to Barber, this is a clear attempt to maintain Republican control of the House in the upcoming midterms. He also pointed out that redistricting is deeply unpopular among North Carolinians, citing polls showing that nearly 85% of residents oppose such moves. Barber emphasized that the U.S. Constitution mandates redistricting only every ten years, arguing that the new map should be declared illegal.
Barber framed the current moment as a pivotal one for democracy, likening it to the "Edmund Pettis Bridge moment"—a reference to the historic 1965 Selma voting rights march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "If they won’t hold public hearings, we will," Barber declared. "We will fight back in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box—Black, white, and brown together, because our democracy is not for sale. We will not be diluted, dismissed or denied." This multi-pronged resistance will include legal action, public demonstrations, and voter mobilization.
Barber’s campaign is already in motion. Last Sunday, he and his team led prayer vigils and peaceful sit-ins at statehouses in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. These protests, he said, were meant to urge lawmakers to stop using people’s lives as pawns in political battles that block essential healthcare and assistance. Dr. Scott Crawford, a Mississippi organizer with Barber’s Moral Monday movement, did not mince words about the stakes. "This is as serious as it gets," Crawford said. "We know people will die if this bill becomes law—an estimated 51,000 lives lost every year."
Barber’s activism is deeply rooted in his faith and Biblical teachings. Yet, he has noted a pattern among conservative lawmakers—such as North Carolina Republican Senator Ted Budd—who often resist public prayers that challenge their policy positions. "Every time we come to [legislative offices] to pray, they say they love prayer, until the prayers come with truth," Barber remarked. "Then, suddenly, their offices become ‘private property.’ But prayer is not a private act; it’s a public challenge to the injustice of our policies." For Barber, the moral imperative is clear: "A nation cannot claim to honor God while crushing the poor and the vulnerable."
Barber is not alone in his criticism. On October 25, 2025, John Hood, a board member of the John Locke Foundation, published an opinion in The News & Observer lambasting the General Assembly’s plan to redraw congressional districts for the 2026 elections. Hood argued that the move is politically motivated, undertaken in response to pressure from former President Trump to increase Republican seats in the U.S. House. He pointed out that this would be the fourth congressional map used in North Carolina this decade, with no new census data or court order necessitating the change. Hood drew attention to similar partisan redistricting efforts in California and Texas, warning that such actions set dangerous precedents for future elections.
Hood’s critique extends beyond the current Republican leadership. He recalled that after the then-Democratic majority in 2001 attempted what he called an "egregious gerrymander," plaintiffs sued, resulting in the North Carolina Supreme Court’s Stephenson v. Bartlett decision. This ruling imposed some order on the process and forbade the use of elongated or misshapen districts, but the standards only applied to certain legislative districts and did not fully prevent partisan gerrymandering. Hood lamented that neither party has implemented lasting reforms to ensure fair redistricting, despite calls from multi-partisan coalitions. "Electoral districts should serve the interests of voters, not candidates," Hood wrote, emphasizing that North Carolinians should not be "repeatedly shoved from one constituency to another, or have their right to choose their own representatives attenuated by artificial constraints on partisan competition."
As North Carolina braces for another round of legal and political battles over its congressional map, the debate has become a microcosm of the larger national struggle over voting rights, representation, and the integrity of American democracy. While Republican leaders argue that their policies have improved the state in areas like taxation, regulation, and education, critics like Barber and Hood warn that repeated partisan redistricting undermines public trust and threatens the foundational principle that voters—not politicians—should choose their representatives.
With a lawsuit looming, a major public meeting on the horizon, and the eyes of the nation watching, North Carolina’s redistricting fight is set to become a defining moment in the ongoing battle over democracy, fairness, and the future of representation in America.
