Elder Barney Hicks was born 11 July 1907 in Wichita, Kansas to Daniel and Carrie (Smith) Hicks. He grew up and attended public schools in Topeka, Kansas. Hicks received his license to preach as a Baptist minister in 1931 and, in 1934, graduated from the Topeka, Kansas Central Baptist Seminary. He earned an A.B. Degree from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1951.

From 1934 to 1936, Hicks served as a pastor in Paxico, Kansas; in Holton and Horton, Kansas from 1936-37; and in Duluth, Minnesota from 1937-42. While in Duluth he was elected Moderator of the Lake Superior Baptist Association and was the first African American to serve in that capacity. During World War II, Hicks served in the United States Army Chaplain's Corp; first as a First Lieutenant and, later, promoted to Captain. After the War, in 1945, Hicks became the Executive Secretary and Missionary of the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Kansas; he served in this position from 1945 to 1956 and worked with 126 churches in upgrading the work of the churches, especially outreach. In 1956 he became the first African American to serve as Field Representative in the American Baptist Home Mission Societies Department of Cities. Hicks had special responsibility for the Baptist Educational Centers and for opening up communications between Black and White Baptist Conventions. When, in 1963, the Baptist Education Centers was combined with two other divisions, Hicks became the Associate Director of the Community Witness Program. In 1967 he became the Program Associate for the Inner City Work for the Division of Church Missions. In 1969 he became the Assistant Secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Societies' Division of Parish Development and Missions. From 1971 to 1976 Hicks served as the Regional Executive Minister of the newly organized American Baptist Churches of the South. After semi-retiring in 1976 he began working part-time as the Ohio Baptist Convention's Minister of Cooperative Relationships. He retired again in 1984 and returned to Topeka where he was active as a church consultant on missions, stewardship and administration, and as a guest speaker.

Hicks was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Baptist Eastern Commission on Ministry, 1975-76; the American Baptist Executive Ministers Council, 1971-76; the Board of Directors of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, 1973-76; the Trustees of Morehouse School of Religion, 1974-76; and the NAACP.

E.B. Hicks married Effie May Hayes on 9 March 1927. They had four children: Rose Marie, Milton T., James Edward, and E. Barney, Jr. Effie Mary Hicks died in 1960. On 10 October 1961, Hicks married Roena Sayers Starks. Elder Barney Hicks died 9 August 1992.