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[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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