[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 118 (Monday, July 15, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H5777-H5778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RECOGNIZING ACHIEVEMENTS OF ELEANOR PATTERSON BARBER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
achievements of a great public servant, a mother, a wife, a friend to 
many, and the longest serving employee of the Washington County North 
Carolina School System, Mrs. Eleanor Patterson Barber. Some refer to 
her as ``Mother Barber.''
  Mrs. Barber, Mr. Speaker, the daughter of Charles Edgar Patterson, a 
West Virginia Pentecostal preacher, and Lucille Patterson, a Georgia 
native from the Southlands, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 
November 13, 1933.
  A graduate of the historic Crispus Attucks High School, Mrs. Barber 
trained as a concert pianist and graduated from Lain Business College 
in Indianapolis. She served in the Civil Air Patrol, where she met her 
husband, the Reverend William J. Barber I, a minister, educator, and 
activist with deep roots in eastern North Carolina.
  With a strong passion and conviction for justice and equality, the 
Barber couple, in 1966, relocated to eastern North Carolina to play an 
essential role in the integration of the county schools. Though it had 
been 12 years since the Brown decision, many Southern schools remained 
fully separated by race.
  While the decision to move southward from a northern metropolitan 
city meant that their only son at the time, William J. Barber, II, 
would enter kindergarten at a segregated school, they believed that 
this sacrifice would, nonetheless, serve the greater good for their 
family, Washington County, and the State.
  Her little boy, William, some refer to him as Billy, is now 
internationally known as Bishop William J. Barber, II, who was the 
architect of the Moral Monday movement and is now the founder and 
leader of Repairers of the Breach, or the Poor People's National 
Campaign.
  In 1966, Mother Barber began working as the office manager at the 
Washington County Union Elementary School, while her husband taught 
science at the school. In 1971, when Mrs. Barber began her duties at 
Plymouth High School, she made history as the first African American 
office manager at a desegregated school in that county.
  Mrs. Barber's passion and conviction have led her to impact 
generations of students over her 53 years of service. She has served 11 
principals, and in some cases, she has watched students and their 
parents and grandparents matriculate through the school. She also 
helped teach countless young people how to play the concert piano, 
often when they didn't have the resources to afford the lessons. She 
has led choirs and served as the baccalaureate musician for the high 
school for many, many years, and she continues.
  In her more than half a century of service to North Carolina's public 
schools, I, today, applaud Mrs. Barber for her years of dedicated and 
committed service to our Nation's most precious resources: our 
children.
  Mrs. Eleanor Barber is a history maker, barrier breaker, and a 
remarkable example of the transformative power of a willing spirit and 
a dedicated public servant.
  On behalf of the United States House of Representatives and the 
people of the First District, including the people of Washington County 
and the town of Roper, where she resides, I express appreciation to 
Mrs. Eleanor Patterson Barber for 53 years of committed service to the 
Washington County, North Carolina, public schools.
  Thank you to Mrs. Barber for your perseverance and your willingness 
to give and to go the extra mile to pour into the youth all that you 
had to offer.
  Mrs. Barber, without exception, earned the right to be honored here 
today on the floor of the House of Representatives. It is my hope that 
God will continue to bless and keep Mrs. Barber and her family for 
years to come.
  I will say, Mr. Speaker, in closing, that Mrs. Barber has a wonderful 
family. She gave birth to two biological children. They were both boys. 
The first was Bishop William J. Barber, II.

[[Page H5778]]

  Bishop Barber is married to Rebecca Barber, and they have five 
children: Sharralle; William, III; Benjamin Joseph; Rebecca Eleanor; 
and Andrew Willard--five wonderful, delightful children.
  The other sibling deceased earlier this year. He lived in Grifton, 
Georgia. His name was Charles Edgar Barber, and he was survived by 
three children: Shakile, Malik, and Quentin.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you allowing me time this morning to 
celebrate and to recognize a great American who has served well over 
these many years.

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