The HistoryMakers

Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris was born on June 12, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her ancestral roots can be traced back to Civil War Virginia. Her mother, Beatrice Price Harris, played the organ for St. Baranabas Church in Germantown and her father, Walter Harris, was a steel worker. Harris attended Thomas Meehan Elementary School, Edwin A. Finter Elementary School and Gillespie Junior High School. At Philadelphia High School for Girls, Harris excelled in music and wrote a weekly column for the Philadelphia version of the Pittsburgh Courier called High School Notes by Bobbi. Graduating in 1948, she attended the Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Journalism. She earned a certificate from Charles Morris Price in 1950. In later years, Harris would study at Villanova University and the Episcopal Divinity School.

In 1949, Harris went to work for Joseph Baker Associates, a pioneering black public relations agency whose clientele included RCA, NBC, American Tobacco Company, Schenley, DuPont, U.S. Steel and Procter & Gamble. Working there for nearly twenty years, Harris always remained active in the Episcopal Church. As a member of the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity (ESCRU) since the late 1950s, Harris served on a number of diocesan committees, and in the 1960s, helped to form the Union of Black Clergy and Laity which was subsequently called the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE). She was a member of the St. Dismas Fellowship and served on the board of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. In 1964, during Freedom Summer, Harris used her summer vacation to volunteer with Delta Ministry in Greenville, Mississippi. There, Harris helped with voter education and registration. As a member of the Church of the Advocate, under rector, Reverend Paul Washington, Harris joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Selma March in 1965. In 1968, Harris joined Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) becoming manager of public relations.

In the early 1970s, Harris, as senior warden for her church, agitated for the ordination of women. In 1974, she supported the ordination of the "Philadelphia Eleven," and by 1976, the church decided to admit women priests. In October of 1980, Harris was ordained and subsequently resigned from Sunoco. She served as priest at St. Augustine of Hippo Church and as chaplain of Philadelphia County Prison. In 1984, Harris was appointed executive director of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. Known for her strong advocacy for social justice, Harris was elected in 1988 and consecrated suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts in 1989. She supported the ordination of Reverend Gene Robinson as the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop in 2003. The recipient of numerous honors, Harris, now retired, continues her involvement in social change.

Harris lives in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Harris was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 12, 2007.