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While being arrested at a McDonald’s workers' demo, Rev Barber is awarded ‘genius grant’
William Barber being arrested by Chicago Police on October 4, while demonstrating for McDonald's workers [Rev. Barber Twitter @RevDrBarber]

AT the very moment he was getting one of the world’s most prestigious awards — a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” — Reverend William Barber, co-leader of the New Poor People’s Campaign, was getting arrested in Chicago’s Loop while demanding McDonald’s workers get $15 an hour and the right to unionise.

Somehow, it seemed fitting: Barber has been campaigning for workers’ rights and civil rights from the day he started Moral Mondays in North Carolina years ago to oppose the anti-worker, anti-minority, white supremacist actions of the Republican-dominated state legislature.

Now he’s got nationwide recognition of a higher order — and $625,000 over five years to plough into the campaign, if he wants — for that drive. 

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