RALEIGH, N.C. — The throngs of demonstrators who flock to the grassy knoll outside the North Carolina Statehouse each Monday know the drill.

They listen to a fiery speech denouncing the Republican majority's legislative actions. They sing freedom songs and chant civil rights slogans.

Then they march two by two into the legislative building to be handcuffed by police and arrested for failing to obey orders to disperse.

Leading them in this weekly rite of nonviolent civil disobedience is the Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the state's NAACP chapter. Since assuming the state presidency eight years ago, he has waged numerous battles challenging local and state governments to extend educational opportunities, broaden the voting base, provide health care and more generally lift up the poor.

At a time when the country is becoming less religious and liberal politicians shy away from faith-based rhetoric, the Disciples of Christ minister, steeped in the activist traditions of the black church, has emerged as a galvanizing force in a pushback against the GOP legislature.

In two months, he has prodded 480 North Carolinians to get arrested during weekly “Mass Moral Monday” protests. This week, Barber expected 300 more at the protests.

“He communicates the message of the South with a power I had heard only in recordings of Dr. Martin Luther King,” said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a Christian writer and activist in Durham who has known the preacher since he was in high school.

With Barber steering the opposition to cuts in unemployment benefits, health care funding, voting rights and environment rules, the movement has taken on the feel of a church revival. Each protest begins with joining hands to pray. Barber's speech is inflected with biblical references and civil rights refrains, such as “Woke up this morning with my mind set on justice.”

The 49-year-old Barber has become as well known as Gov. Pat McCrory and Republican leaders of the House and Senate. At a Durham coffee shop last week, Web developer Jim McManus walked up to Barber to say, “Thank you for all you're doing.”

To outsiders, North Carolina is often indistinguishable from a host of Southern states with equally conservative social and fiscal agendas. But in fact, it has long been a moderate state in which Democrats controlled the governor's office for 20 years, and until last year, controlled at least one body of the legislature since the 1800s.

No one knows this better than Barber. He points out he's not wedded to the Democratic Party but rather to coalitions that are willing to fight for just causes.

His activism hasn't won him many friends among Republicans in Raleigh, some of whom have dubbed the protests “Moron Mondays” and labeled the demonstrators “mostly white, angry, aged former hippies.”

There's no question Barber is a polarizing figure, and that may be the reason there haven't been any serious face-to-face conversations between the lawmakers and the demonstrators.

Barber, too, may recognize there's little maneuvering space with the current legislature. He's focused on legal challenges and voter registration drives intended to stop the government's actions in its tracks.

“We may not sprint forward,” he said, “but there's a resistance to going backward.” That's why he's picked the slogan for his campaign: “Forward together. Not one step back.”

On Monday morning, Barber was in court to challenge the arrests on constitutional grounds.

But on Monday night, many will proudly wear a gray-and-white pin.

It reads: “I went to jail with Rev. Barber.”