Anti-poverty activist Rev. William Barber arrested while praying at US Capitol

Martha Quillin, The News & Observer on Apr 29, 2025

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RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina-based pastor and national anti-poverty activist Rev. William Barber II was arrested with two other clergy members Monday while praying at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

The three were part of a group of 20 to 30 people who had gone to the Capitol after a larger “Moral Mondays” rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court building. Organizers say the gatherings are in opposition to cuts that have been made or proposed in the federal budget that are immoral because they disproportionately affect poor and vulnerable people.

A three-minute video posted online Monday night by Repairers of the Breach, of which Barber is president and senior lecturer, shows Barber praying with the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a writer, preacher and assistant director for partnerships and fellowships at Yale University’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville.

They took turns reading from a scripted prayer, saying, “We are here crying to you, Oh, God, because we have heard the cries of your people.”

“Deliver us, Oh, Lord, from the deceptive lie that says our nation will be better off if those who have little get less, and those who have too much get more,” they said.

“Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy.”

Capitol Police officers stepped in to tell the group they were participating in an “unlawful demonstration” and must stop or be arrested.

Officers then told others in the room they must get out, including at least one person who told officers he was a member of the press. The doors to the rotunda closed with Barber and others from his group still inside, while everyone else was told they had to leave the building.

Barber said on Tuesday that with the doors closed, he, Wilson-Hartgrove and Swayne were handcuffed and arrested.

The three were charged by Capitol Police with “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding,” a violation of a District of Columbia ordinance around public demonstrations.

“We weren’t cursing. We weren’t talking extraordinarily loud,” said Barber, who was wearing a stole that said, “Jesus was a poor man” when officers detained him. “They gave us three warnings and then they arrested us, saying our prayer was an illegal activity.”

A public information officer for the Capitol Police said Tuesday via email that Barber and the others were arrested “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 said. “That is when we gave them multiple warnings to stop or they would be arrested. Three people didn’t stop. “

The spokesperson said there are other places on Capitol grounds where such a demonstration would have been allowed.

To resolve the charges, the spokesperson said, “Basically they just have to pay a ticket.”

Barber said he and the others don’t plan to contest the charges and would pay the fine.

Barber has been arrested numerous times, including in connection with the original Moral Mondays campaign in North Carolina that began in the spring of 2013. At the time, the Republican-led state legislature was moving to cut education funding and unemployment benefits, opting out of Medicaid expansion, restricting abortion rights, limiting voter access and relaxing environmental protections, all of which Barber said was “regressive” and “extremist” and had the worst impacts on poor people, women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, minorities and the uninsured.

Barber said Tuesday he has similar concerns about federal budget proposals in the works now, especially a plan by Republicans in Congress to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, meant to expire at the end of this year. Budget analysts with the Bipartisan Policy Center have said extending the cuts could add more than $4 trillion to the federal deficit from fiscal year 2025 through 2034.

Congress is considering cutting spending on federal programs to offset some of that cost.

Doing so, while also increasing spending for the military, Barber said Tuesday, “is so disastrous. There is no way they can cut $2 trillion from the budget and not undermine Social Security and Medicare and free and reduced-price lunches for school children.”

Barber said it was interesting that he and others from the interfaith Moral Mondays movement were arrested days after President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice launched a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the federal government.

Barber, who is co-chair of the national Poor People’s Campaign, said it’s his Christian faith that compels him to advocate for the poor, women, children and immigrants.

“But people come in (to the Capitol) to say this budget does not line up with our values or even the Constitution, and we get arrested,” Barber said.

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