William Barber II

== Recognitions ==
[[File:William Barber II with Kamala Harris.jpg|thumb|Barber meeting with Senator [[Kamala Harris]] in 2018]]
Barber was awarded the 2006 [[Juanita Jackson Mitchell]], Esq. Award for legal activism, the highest award in the NAACP for legal redress for advocacy, he was the 2008 recipient of the Thalheimer Award for most programmatic NAACP State Conference, and in 2010 he won the National NAACP Kelly M. Alexander Humanitarian Award.

North Carolina Governor [[Bev Perdue]] awarded him the [[Order of the Long Leaf Pine]] in 2009—a North Carolina citizenship award presented to outstanding North Carolinians who have a proven record of service to the state.

In 2017, Barber was awarded an honorary doctorate from [[Drew University]], his alma mater, and also delivered the university's sesquicentennial address at commencement exercises.  Barber was also awarded an honorary doctorate from [[Occidental College]] preceding his speech (which was also livestreamed) to students, alumni, and community members in Thorne Hall.

In 2018, Barber was named a [[MacArthur Fellows Program|MacArthur Fellow]] (popularly known as the "Genius Grant") for "building broad-based fusion coalitions as part of a moral movement to confront racial and [[economic inequality]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1005/|title=William J. Barber II - MacArthur Foundation|website=www.macfound.org|access-date=October 4, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004205051/https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1005/|url-status=live}}</ref>