Dr. Barbour was was a member of the executive board of the National Baptist Convention and for 17 years. He was also the editor of the National Baptist Voice, a national religious magazine. Barbour, hailing from Galveston, Texas, was born on 8 June 1894. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he pursued his education at the same college and seminary, obtaining a BA from Morehouse College in 1917 and a Master of Theology from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1937. In the 1920s, he dedicated himself as a pastor at Day Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and later served at Calvary Baptist Church in Chester from 1933 until his passing in 1974.