Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (born March 6, 1936) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the
Council of the District of ColumbiaThe Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected
mayor of the District of ColumbiaThe Mayor of the District of Columbia is the head of the executive branch of the government of Washington, D.C. The Mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Council of the District of Columbia...
from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995 to 1999. In addition to his current term, Barry also served two other tenures on the D.C. Council, as an At-Large member from 1975–79, and as Ward 8 representative from 1992–95. In the 1960s he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as the first president of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeThe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC).
Barry came to national prominence as mayor of the national capital, the first prominent civil-rights activist to become chief executive of a major American city; he gave the presidential nomination speech for
Jesse JacksonJesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
at the
1984 Democratic National ConventionThe 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine...
. His celebrity transformed into international notoriety in January 1990, when Barry was videotaped smoking
crack cocaineCrack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
and arrested by
FBIThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
officials on
drugA psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
chargesDrug use has increased in all categories since prohibition except that opium use is at a fraction of its peak level. The big decline in use of opium started already after the Harrison Act of 1914. Use of heroin peaked between 1969 and 1971, cocaine, between 1987 and 1989 and marijuana between 1978...
. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry seeking re-election, and Barry served six months in a
federal prison. After his release, however, he was elected to the D.C. city council in 1992 and ultimately returned to the mayoralty in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.
Despite his history of political and legal controversies, Barry remains a figure of enormous popularity and influence on the local political scene of Washington D.C. The
alternative weeklyAn alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
Washington City PaperThe Washington City Paper is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Founded in 1981, and published for its first year under the masthead 1981, taking the City Paper name in volume 2, by Russ Smith, it shared ownership with the Chicago Reader from 1982...
nicknamed him "Mayor-for-Life," a designation that remained long after Barry left the mayoralty. The
Washington Post has stated that "To understand the District of Columbia, one must understand Marion Barry."
Early life and activism
Marion Barry was born in
Leflore County, Mississippi-National protected area:*Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge*Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 37,947 people, 12,956 households, and 8,887 families residing in the county. The population density was 64 people per square mile...
, the third of ten children. His father died when he was four years old, and a year later his mother moved the family to
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
,
TennesseeTennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, where her employment prospects were better. He had a number of jobs as a child, including picking cotton, delivering and selling newspapers, and bagging groceries. While in high school, Barry worked as a waiter at the American Legion post and at the Boy Scouts earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
Barry attended LeMoyne College (now
LeMoyne-Owen College-External links:*...
), graduating in 1958. While at LeMoyne, his ardent support of the civil rights movement earned him the nickname "Shep", in reference to Soviet propagandist
Dmitri ShepilovDmitri Trofimovich Shepilov was a Soviet politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs who joined the abortive plot to oust Nikita Khrushchev from power in 1957.-Childhood:Dmitri Shepilov was born to a worker's family in Askhabad...
. Barry began using Shepilov as his middle name. In 1958 at LeMoyne, he criticized a college trustee for remarks he felt were demeaning to African Americans, which nearly caused his expulsion.
Barry also earned a Masters of Science in
organic chemistryOrganic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
from
Fisk UniversityFisk University is an historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to...
in 1960. Barry is a member of
Alpha Phi AlphaAlpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...
fraternity.
After graduating from Fisk, Barry joined the
American civil rights movementThe African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
, focusing on the elimination of the
racial segregationRacial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
of bus passengers. He was elected the first chairman of the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeThe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC). Barry began a doctoral program at the
University of KansasThe University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
, but he quit the program when white parents opposed him tutoring their children. He began doctoral
chemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
studies at the
University of TennesseeThe University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
in
KnoxvilleFounded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, the only African American in the class. There too he was prohibited from tutoring white children, and his wife was not allowed to work at the school. He quit the program in favor of his new duties at SNCC. During his time leading SNCC, Barry led protests against racial segregation and discrimination.
In 1965, Barry moved to Washington, D.C. to open a local chapter of SNCC, where he was heavily involved in coordinating peaceful street demonstrations as well as a boycott to protest bus fare increases. He also served as the leader of the Free D.C. Movement, strongly supporting increased
home ruleDistrict of Columbia home rule is a term to describe the various means by which residents of the District of Columbia are able to govern their local affairs...
for the District. Barry quit SNCC in 1967, when
H. Rap BrownJamil Abdullah Al-Amin , also known as H. Rap Brown, was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, and during a short lived alliance between SNCC , later the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party...
became chairman of the group. Two years later, Barry and Mary Treadwell cofounded Pride, Inc., a federally funded program to provide job training to unemployed black men. Barry and Treadwell married in 1972, and separated five years later.
Barry was active in the aftermath of the
1968 Washington, D.C. riotsFive days of race riots erupted in Washington, D.C. following the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement-leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil unrest affected at least 110 U.S...
, organizing through Pride Inc. a program of free food distribution for poor black residents whose homes and neighborhoods had been destroyed in the rioting. Barry convinced the
Giant FoodGiant Food as a supermarket chain may refer to:* Giant-Carlisle or Giant Food Stores LLC, a subsidiary of Ahold* Giant-Landover or Giant Food LLC, also an Ahold subsidiary* Giant Food Markets of Broome County, New York...
supermarket chain to donate food, and spent a week driving trucks and delivering food throughout the city's housing projects. He also became a board member of the city’s Economic Development Committee, helping to route federal funds and venture capital to black-owned businesses that were struggling to recover from the riots.
Marion Barry married Effi Slaughter, his third wife, just after announcing his candidacy for mayor in 1978. The couple had one son, Christopher Barry. The Barrys divorced in 1993, but she returned to Washington and supported him in his successful bid for a city council seat in 2004. Effi died on September 6, 2007, after an 18-month battle with
acute myeloid leukemiaAcute myeloid leukemia , also known as acute myelogenous leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells that accumulate in the bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal blood cells. AML is the most common acute...
.
Barry's mother, Mattie Cummings, died at age 92 in
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
on November 8, 2009.
Entry into politics
Elected to the
school boardA board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....
in 1972, Barry served as Board president for two years, reorganizing the school system’s finances and building consensus on the board, and overseeing the installation of Barbara Sizemore as the city’s superintendent. Upon establishment of
Washington's Home RuleDistrict of Columbia home rule is a term to describe the various means by which residents of the District of Columbia are able to govern their local affairs...
in 1974, Barry was elected an at-large member of Washington's first elected
city councilA city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
, and while serving as a council member became chair of the District of Columbia Committee on Finance and Revenue. He was re-elected in 1976.
While serving on the
D.C. city councilThe Council of the District of Columbia is the legislative branch of the local government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the District is not part of any U.S. state and is instead overseen directly by the federal government...
, Barry was shot on March 9, 1977, by radical Hanafi Muslims (from a breakaway sect of the
Nation of IslamThe Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
) when they overran the
District BuildingThe John A. Wilson Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building or the JAWB, houses the offices and chambers of the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson...
. Barry was shot near his heart during the two-day
1977 Hanafi Muslim SiegeOn March 9–11, 1977, three buildings in Washington, D.C. were seized by 12 African-American Muslim gunmen, led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who took 149 hostages and killed a radio journalist and a police officer. After a 39-hour standoff all other hostages were released from the District Building On...
in which hostages were held by the terrorists and which was finally defused by the FBI and Muslim ambassadors.
Having credentials as an activist, legislator, and "hero" in a hostage crisis, as well as an early endorsement from the Washington Post, Barry followed in Washington's mayoralty when its first elected mayor,
Walter WashingtonWalter Edward Washington, was an American politician, the first home-rule mayor of the District of Columbia...
, fell out of political favor in the 1978 election. Running with the campaign slogan “Take A Stand” and the promise to improve the “bumbling and bungling” Washington administration, Barry won the Democratic primary election against his main rivals Mayor Washington and council chairman
Sterling TuckerSterling Tucker is a civil rights activist and politician in Washington, D.C. In 1974, he was elected as a Democrat to be chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia in the first election after home rule was established, serving for one term...
in a vote so close that final tally was in doubt for over two weeks. He went on to defeat his Republican opponent
Arthur FletcherArthur Fletcher was an American government official, widely referred to as the "father of affirmative action" as he was largely responsible for the Revised Philadelphia Plan....
and two other minor candidates in a landslide general election in November. He was only the second person elected to the position.
First term, 1979–83
Barry’s first four years in office were characterized by increased efficiency in city administration and government services, in particular the sanitation department. Barry also instituted his signature summer jobs program, in which summer employment was made available to every school-age resident. At the same time, Barry straightened the city’s chaotic finances and attacked the deficit by introducing spending controls and laying off ten percent of the city’s workforce. Each year of his first term saw a budget surplus of at least US$13 million. DC political reporter Jonetta Rose Barras characterized the first Barry administration as "methodical, competent, and intellectually superior."
However, unemployment rose dramatically during his first administration, as did crime rates, in part because many of his layoffs were centered in the police department (with 1,500 terminations by 1981). Barry's campaign promise to "take the boards off" public housing – i.e., to rehabilitate dilapidated and condemned public housing units – was slow in fulfillment. The city's deficit was a constant problem as well: Barry had recalculated the Washington Administration's claim of a $41 million surplus and found that the city was actually $285 million in debt, a long-term accrual that even his annual surpluses were unable to surmount by the end of his term. In addition, graft and embezzlement among Barry appointees such as Employment Services Director Ivanhoe Donaldson began late in Barry's first term, although it would not be discovered for several years. Barry himself was touched by a number of “mini-scandals,” including travels whose financiers he often kept secret, and the first reports of his cocaine use at downtown nightclubs.
In 1982, Barry faced re-election against a challenge from fellow Democrat
Patricia Roberts HarrisPatricia Roberts Harris served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President Jimmy Carter...
, an African-American woman who had served in two cabinet positions under President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, as well as from council members
John L. RayJohn L. Ray is a lawyer and Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. He was an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1997...
and
Charlene Drew JarvisCharlene Drew Jarvis is an American educator and former scientific researcher and politician who served as the president of Southeastern University until March 31, 2009...
. In the primary election held September 14, 1982, Barry won by a landslide, with over 58% of the vote, then went on to win 82% of the vote in the November 11 general election against Republican candidate E. Brooke Lee.
Second term, 1983–87
Barry’s second term was much more troublesome than his first. Though Washington experienced a massive real estate boom that helped alleviate the city’s fiscal problems for a time, government spending skyrocketed; the administration managed to post a fifth straight budget surplus, but the next year struggled with a $110 million deficit. Much of the disparity was caused by Barry's policy of combatting unemployment by creating government jobs; The city government’s payrolls swelled so greatly that by 1986 nobody in the administration knew exactly how many employees it had.
Wasteful contract spending also became a problem in the second Barry administration; in his first term Barry had made a point of insisting that any firm wishing to do business with the city have minority partners, and shepherding legislation requiring 35% of all contracts to go to minority-owned firms. The policy was modified in his second term such that the administration gave contracts to Barry’s political connections and high-end campaign contributors to the tune of $856 million, but without any oversight from the city. As such, the cost of services such as heating oil for the public schools inflated 40 percent, without any guarantee that the goods and services were being provided. City councilman
John A. WilsonJohn A. Wilson was an American politician.Wilson served in 1974 as the chairman of the drive to approve the referendum to adopt the Home Rule Charter for the District of Columbia...
commented that “What started out to benefit the minority community at large has meant some politically influential blacks can move out to posh suburbs.”
Major scandal caught up to the mayor in his second term. Several of his associates were indicted for financial malfeasances, including former administration officials Ivanhoe Donaldson and Alphonse G. Hill. Barry also began to be plagued by rumors and press reports of womanizing and of alcohol and drug abuse; in particular, stories abounded of his cocaine use in the city’s nightclubs and red-light district. In 1984, Barry’s onetime lover Karen Johnson was convicted of cocaine possession and contempt of court for refusing to testify to a grand jury about Barry’s drug use.
Nevertheless, Barry’s second four years in office had some high points, including the District’s entry into the open
bond marketThe bond market is a financial market where participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt securities, known as the Secondary market, usually in the form of bonds. The primary goal of the bond market is to provide a mechanism for long term funding of public and...
with Wall Street’s highest credit rating, and Barry’s nomination speech for Jesse Jackson at the 1984 Democratic Convention.
Third term, 1987–91
By the time of Barry’s third mayoral election in 1986, his stranglehold on city politics was such that he faced only token opposition from the Democratic Party, in the form of former school board member Mattie Taylor, whom Barry defeated easily and did the same with Republican candidate
Carol SchwartzCarol Schwartz is a politician from Washington, D.C., who served as an at-large member on the Council of the District of Columbia from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 2009.-Early life:...
in the November 4 general election. For the third time, Barry received the endorsement of the ‘’Washington Post’’, but “with far greater reservations and misgivings” than at any time in the past
By his third term, however, Barry was openly suffering the effects of his alcohol and cocaine addictions; he would later admit that 1987 was the year he lost control of his addictions. His public appearances were marked by slurred words and glassy eyes, while aides began scheduling all of his daily events later and later in the day as he began arriving to his office as late as lunchtime, and nodding off to sleep at his desk. His ability to function as mayor had become so impaired that even his closest associates urged him not to run again, going so far as to attempt to instead create an endowed professorship for him at the
University of the District of ColumbiaThe University of the District of Columbia is a historically black, public university located in Washington, D.C. UDC is one of only a few urban land-grant universities in the country and a member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
.
In the wake of Barry's inattention, the city declined badly. Notoriously, Barry was attending the Superbowl in California when a winter blizzard struck Washington in January 1987, leaving city crews to badly mishandle the road clearing.
In 1987
crackCrack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
exploded in the city, as did territorial wars among drug dealers; 1988 saw 369 homicides in DC, shattering records that were broken again with 434 homicides in 1989 and 474 in 1990, making Washington's murder rate the highest in the nation. DC government's employment and deficits grew even as city services suffered; in particular, there were frequent press reports of deaths occurring because police lacked cars to get to crime scenes, and EMS services responded slowly or went to the wrong address.
1990 arrest
By late 1989, federal officials had been investigating Barry for six years on suspicion of illegal drug possession and use; that fall, they were able to make cases against several of Barry's associates for past cocaine use, including Charles Lewis – a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands who was implicated in a drug investigation involving Barry and a room at Washington’s Ramada Inn in December 1988 – and a former girlfriend, ex-model Rasheeda Moore.
On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with Moore in a
sting operationIn law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
at the Vista Hotel by the FBI and D.C. Police for
crack cocaineCrack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
use and possession. The incident was widely broadcast on television, showing an enraged Barry excoriating Moore, who had become an FBI informant. The outburst, in which Barry muttered, in part, "Bitch set me up," became a popular quote associated with Barry.
Barry was charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of misdemeanor drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine. The criminal trial ended in August 1990 with a conviction for only one possession incident, which had occurred in November 1989, and an acquittal on another. The jury
hungA hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
on the remaining charges. Six or seven jurors (of whom two were white and the rest black) believed that the evidence against Barry was overwhelming and that he had displayed "arrogance" during the trial. Against these, five black jurors were convinced that the prosecution had falsified evidence and testimony as part of a racist conspiracy against Barry, and even disputed factual findings that had not been contested in court. After scolding the jurors for not following his instructions, the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining charges.
As a result of his arrest and the ensuing trial, Barry decided In June 1990 not to seek re-election as mayor. Barry was sentenced to a six-month federal prison term in October 1990.
After his arrest and through his trial, Barry continued as mayor. He even ran as an independent for an at-large seat on the council against 13-year incumbent
Hilda MasonHilda Howland M. Mason was a politician and statehood advocate in Washington, D.C. She was a member of the D.C...
. Mason, a former ally who had helped Barry recuperate after the 1977 shooting, took the challenge personally, saying, "I do feel very disappointed in my grandson Marion Barry." Mason was endorsed by a majority of the council members and by
Jesse JacksonJesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, who was running for shadow senator.
Barry was sentenced to six months in federal prison shortly before the November election, which he lost – in the first (and to date only) electoral loss of his career – despite doing well among the voters of Ward 8. His wife and son moved out of the house later that month.
In October, 1991 Barry surrendered himself at a correctional facility in
Petersburg, VirginiaPetersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
. After an alleged sexual misconduct resulted in his transfer to another federal prison in
Loretto, PennsylvaniaLoretto is a borough in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is officially part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area as recognized by the US Census Bureau, but local sources list it as part of the Altoona, Pennsylvania area due to its proximity to...
, midway through his sentence, Barry was released in April 1992.
Post-conviction
Barry was released from prison in 1992, and almost immediately upon returning to the District filed papers to run for the Ward 8 city council seat in that year's election. Barry ran under the slogan "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." He defeated the four-term incumbent,
Wilhelmina RolarkWilhelmina J. Rolark was a Democratic politician and activist in Washington, D.C. She was elected as Ward 8 member of the Council of the District of Columbia in 1976 and served four terms....
, in the Democratic primary, winning 70 percent of the vote, saying he was "not interested in being mayor", and went on to win the general election easily.
1994 mayoral campaign
Despite his earlier statements to the contrary, observers of Barry's council victory expressed beliefs that he was laying ground for a mayoral run in 1994. Indeed, Barry fulfilled expectations when he formally announced his candidacy for mayor on May 21, 1994 and was immediately regarded as a serious challenge to the unpopular incumbent mayor,
Sharon Pratt KellySharon Pratt Kelly , formerly Sharon Pratt Dixon and now known as Sharon Pratt, was the third mayor of the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1995. Pratt was the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city...
. Despite much opposition, including an abortive effort to recall his 1992 council election, Barry won a three-way Democratic primary contest for mayor with 48% of the vote on September 13. The victory, coming after Barry's videotaped crack use and conviction, shocked the nation, carrying front page headlines in newspapers as far away as the
Los Angeles Times and
Boston Globe.
Though facing a credible challenge from Republican councilmember Carol Schwartz, who received the endorsement of the
Washington Post and captured 42% of the vote, Barry was victorious in the general election with 56%.
Another oft-repeated Barry quote came in the aftermath of his electoral victory, in which he counseled those voters who opposed his mayoral campaign to "get over it.".
Mayor (fourth term), 1995–99
Barry was sworn into office on January 2, 1995, and was almost immediately confronted with a financial crisis. The budgetary problems of his previous administrations had only increased during Kelly's term, with city officials estimating a fiscal 1996 deficit between $700 million and $1 billion. In addition, city services remained extremely dysfunctional due to mismanagement. One month into his term, Barry declared that the city government was "unworkable" in its present state and lobbied Congress to take over the areas of its operation that were analogous to typical state government functions.
Wall StreetWall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
, which Barry had convinced just after his election to continue investing in municipal bonds, reduced the city's credit rating to "junk status." Instead of implementing Barry's proposals, the newly Republican Congress (who had come to power on promises of decreasing federal spending) placed several city operations into receivership and created the
District of Columbia Financial Control BoardThe District of Columbia Financial Control Board was a five-member body established by the United States Congress in 1995 to oversee the finances of Washington, D.C...
to assume complete authority over the city's day-to-day spending and finances, including overrule of the mayor's fiscal decisions.
The next two years were dominated by budgetary and policy battles between Barry and the Control Board — along with
Chief Financial OfficerThe chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
Anthony A. WilliamsAnthony Allen "Tony" Williams is an American politician who served as the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. He had previously served as chief financial officer for the District, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of...
— for power over the District of Columbia's operation. The conflict was ultimately settled when in 1997 the
Clinton AdministrationWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and
SenatorThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Lauch FairclothDuncan McLauchlin "Lauch" Faircloth , served one term as a Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina.Before his Senate service, Faircloth was a prominent and wealthy hog farmer...
agreed on legislation that rescued the city from its financial crisis but stripped Barry of all authority (including hiring and firing) over nine District agencies, making them directly answerable to the Control Board. Barry was left with control of only the Department of Parks and Recreation, the public libraries, and the Board of Tourism, as well as the ceremonial trappings of his office — a condition he characterized “a rape of democracy.”
Barry declined to run for a fifth term in office in June 1998, stating his belief that Congress would not restore home rule to DC while he was mayor. He was succeeded by city CFO Anthony A. Williams.
Return to DC Council
After leaving office, Barry performed consulting work for an investment banking firm.
On March 6, 2002, Barry declared his intention to challenge at-large council member
Phil MendelsonPhilip Heath Mendelson is a politician from Washington, D.C.-Political career:In 1998, Mendelson was elected as a Democrat to be an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia, and he has been reelected twice....
in the Democratic primary. Within a month, he decided against running, after an incident in which U.S. Park Police found traces of marijuana and cocaine in his car.
On June 12, 2004, Barry announced that he was running in the Democratic primary for the Ward 8 council seat, a position he held before becoming mayor. Barry received 58% of the vote, defeating the incumbent council member,
Sandy AllenSandra C. "Sandy" Allen is a Democratic politician in Washington, D.C. She was elected as the Ward 8 member of the Council of the District of Columbia in 1996 and served in that position until 2005.-Political career:...
, on September 14, 2004. Barry received 95% of the vote in the general election, giving him a victory in the race to represent Ward 8 in the Council.
During the 2006 mayoral election, Barry endorsed
Adrian FentyAdrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
despite
Linda CroppLinda Washington Cropp is a politician in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. She was a Democratic member of the Council of the District of Columbia, where she was the first woman to serve as the elected Council Chairman. On September 12, 2006, she lost the Democratic Primary for...
hiring many members of Barry's former
political machineA political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
. Recently, however, Barry has publicly clashed with Fenty over DC United's proposed soccer stadium in Barry's Ward 8. Barry is the stadium's most outspoken supporter on the council, whereas Fenty has attempted to distance himself from his initial support for the project.
In July 2007, Marion Barry was chosen as one of fifty wax statues to debut in the Washington D.C. franchise of
Madame Tussauds Wax MuseumMadame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame Tussaud's", but the apostrophe is no longer used...
. Barry was chosen by a majority of Washington residents and tourists from Tussauds' "Top 10 Wish List," in a contest that pitted him against Cal Ripken,
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
,
Denzel WashingtonDenzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
,
Carl BernsteinCarl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...
,
Halle BerryHalle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
,
Martin SheenRamón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
,
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
,
Nancy ReaganNancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
and
Oprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
.
Barry ran for re-election in 2008 and easily held off all five challengers in the Democratic primary: Ahmad Braxton-Jones, Howard Brown, Chanda McMahan, Sandra Seegars and Charles Wilson. No Republican or
Statehood GreenThe D.C. Statehood Green Party, also known as the D.C. Statehood Party, is a political party in Washington, D.C. The party is the D.C. affiliate of the national Green Party, but has traditionally been involved primarily with issues related to D.C. Statehood...
candidates filed to run in the Ward 8 council race.
Vote on gay marriage
In May 2009, Barry voted against a bill committing Washington, D.C. to recognize
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
s performed elsewhere. During his 2008 reelection campaign, Barry had told members of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city's largest
LGBTLGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
political group, "I don’t think you should make [supporting the bill] a
litmus testA litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would proceed with the appointment or nomination...
. But if a bill like that were to come up, I would vote for it." Following his May 2009 vote against recognizing gay marriages, Barry was criticized for what activists believed to be an apparent
flip-flopA "flip-flop" , U-turn , or backflip is a sudden real or apparent change of policy or opinion by a public official, sometimes while trying to claim that both positions are consistent with each other...
. Councilman
Phil MendelsonPhilip Heath Mendelson is a politician from Washington, D.C.-Political career:In 1998, Mendelson was elected as a Democrat to be an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia, and he has been reelected twice....
said he was surprised by the vote because Barry had signed on as a co-introducer of the marriage bill. Barry said his position had not changed and warned that the council needed to move slowly on this issue. Citing his belief that the local
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
community is overwhelmingly opposed to gay marriage, "All hell is going to break loose", Barry said. "We may have a
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. The black community is just adamant against this."
Failures to file tax returns and pay taxes
On October 28, 2005, Barry pleaded guilty to the
misdemeanorA misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
charges stemming from an IRS investigation. The mandatory drug testing for the hearing showed Barry as being positive for cocaine and marijuana. On March 9, 2006, he was sentenced to three years
probationProbation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
for misdemeanor charges of failing to pay federal and local taxes, and underwent drug counseling.
In 2007, federal prosecutors sought to have his probation revoked for failure to file his 2005 tax return. U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson refused, saying that prosecutors had not proved that the failure was willful, even if Barry was aware he had missed the deadline. According to Judge Robinson, sentencing Barry to jail without proving that he willfully failed to file his taxes would contradict precedent set by the United States Supreme Court.
On February 9, 2009, prosecutors filed a motion in federal court to revoke Barry's probation for not filing his 2007 tax return, which violated his probation. According to one prosecutor, Barry has not filed his taxes eight of the last nine years. In an interview with Bruce Johnson of Channel 9 News, Barry said he has been undergoing four-hour
dialysesIn medicine, dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure...
three times a week as treatment for a problem with his kidney. At that point, a kidney donor had been identified, but the operation had yet to be scheduled. Barry said the reason he did not file his taxes is because of distractions from his medical problem, although he noted that there is "no excuse" for not filing. If the presiding judge approves the prosecutors' motion, Barry's probation could be extended by two years or he could be sentenced to several months in jail. On February 17,
WTOP-FMWTOP is an all-news formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Washington, D.C., serving Metropolitan Washington, DC area. WTOP is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting.WTOP is one of two all-news stations in the Washington, D.C...
reported that, according to Barry's attorney, Barry had filed his federal and District tax returns for 2007. The same day, Barry was admitted to Howard University Hospital to prepare for a kidney transplant the next day. On February 23, prosecutors filed a motion to order Barry to appear in court on April 2, which the judge approved. Barry was released from the hospital on February 27, but he was readmitted on March 2 due to large amounts of air in his abdominal cavity and also due to Barry's complaints of serious pains, both of which were caused by the combination of medications Barry was taking after the operation. Barry was released from the hospital on March 6.
Alleged traffic violations
On September 10, 2006, Barry was stopped by
Secret ServiceThe United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
Uniformed Division police officers after stopping at a green light and running a red light. According to a Secret Service spokesman, the police officers pulled over his car, smelled alcohol, and administered a field sobriety test. Barry was then taken to the U.S. Capitol Police station for a
breathalyzerA breathalyzer or breathalyser is a device for estimating blood alcohol content from a breath sample...
test. The Secret Service said that the Breathalyzer test did not give an accurate reading, but Barry later said that it gave a successful reading of 0.02%, which is less than the legal limit of 0.08%. The police officers asked Barry to give a urine analysis, which Barry refused. The officers gave Barry a ticket for running a red light and failing to submit to a urine analysis. He was also charged with driving an unregistered vehicle and misuse of temporary tags. Barry pled not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors offered Barry a deal to drop the charge of driving under the influence in exchange for a guilty plea from Barry; he declined. A judge found him not guilty of the charges.
On December 16, 2006, the
Park PoliceThe United States Park Police is one of the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement agencies in the United States. It functions as a full service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in those National Park Service areas primarily located in the Washington, D.C., San...
pulled over Barry for driving too slowly, which Barry later said was because he was trying to figure out where to enter an elementary school's parking lot for a nonprofit foundation's event. After looking up Barry's record, the police officer told Barry that his license had been suspended and ticketed Barry for operating a vehicle on a suspended license, despite Barry's insistence to the contrary. Two days later, the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed that Barry's license had not actually been suspended and said a computer glitch must have caused the error.
Alleged personal benefit from contract to girlfriend
On July 4, 2009, Barry was taken into custody by the Park Police after political consultant Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, his ex-girlfriend, claimed he was
stalkingStalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...
her. Barry was arrested and charged with "
misdemeanorA misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
stalking". Following an interview with authorities, he was released on citation and told he must appear before the
Superior Court of the District of ColumbiaThe Superior Court of the District of Columbia is the local trial court for the District of Columbia. It hears cases involving criminal and civil law. The court also handles specialized cases in the following areas: family court, landlord and tenant, probate, tax, and traffic offenses...
on July 9. However, all charges were dropped on July 8.
An investigative report by Special Counsel said that Barry had personally benefited from a contract that he had awarded to his then-girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. The report stated that Barry had awarded a contract to Watts-Brighthaupt, who then repaid money owed to Barry with the proceeds of the contract. When interviewed by the Special Counsel, Watts-Brighthaupt admitted plagiarizing substantial portions of her study from a publicly available study by the United States Department of Education. The Special Counsel report also said that Barry had requested 41
earmarksIn United States politics, an earmark is a legislative provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects, or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees...
in 2009 worth $8.4 million, some of which were paid to organizations "rife with waste and abuse." The report also said that Barry had impeded the investigation by refusing to respond to questions and by telling witnesses not to respond to questions and not give subpoenaed documents to the Special Counsel.
Barry responded to the Special Counsel report by saying that he had violated no written rules or procedures on such contracts and that there was no conflict of interest. Barry apologized for his "very, very poor judgment."
In response to the Special Counsel report, several council members said they would like to hear a response from Barry before considering a
censureA censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.-Politics:...
. On March 2, 2010, the Council of the District of Columbia voted 12–0 in favor of stripping Barry of all committee assignments, ending his chair of the Committee on Housing and Workforce Development, and removing him from the Committee on Finance and Revenue.
See also
External links