Marion Barry Dies at 78, D.C. Mayor, Civil Rights Leader and Comeback Wonder Beset by Scandals
By Jonathan D. Salant and Joe Sabo November 23, 2014
Marion Barry, the civil-rights leader who became a polarizing political figure during two spans as mayor of Washington, D.C., separated by a prison sentence for drug possession, has died. He was 78.
He died today at United Medical Center in Washington, less than a day after he was released from Howard University Hospital, his family said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
His long history of health troubles included diabetes, a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the 1990s and a kidney transplant in 2009. He was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2014.
STORY: What Obama Didn't Get Done in Asia
Barry retained his popularity with residents of the nation’s capital even after his arrest on drug charges, reports of womanizing and cocaine use, and failure to pay U.S. income taxes.
As the city’s second elected mayor, from 1979 to 1991, and fourth elected mayor, from 1995 to 1999, he boosted spending on government programs, increased the city payroll and gave contracts to minority-owned firms.
The Washington Post reported in 1998 that D.C. government, under Barry, had hired more municipal employees than any other U.S. city.
STORY: After CSX Settlement, More Trial Lawyers Will Be Sued Under RICO
Also part of the Barry record were guilty pleas or convictions of more than a dozen people in his administration for misconduct in office. Courts appointed receivers to oversee city agencies that provided public housing and cared for the mentally ill. In 1995, the U.S. Congress took away much of his remaining power by creating the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which oversaw city finances through 2001.
‘Very Bright’“He was very bright, with wonderful leadership and oratorical skills,” said former U.S. Representative James Walsh, a New York Republican who chaired the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversaw spending for the District of Columbia. “But he didn’t have a clue how to run a city.”
The politically resilient Barry returned to politics in 2004, winning a seat on the City Council representing Ward 8, the city’s poorest.
STORY: Why Obama's Courtship of Myanmar Backfired
In 2010, the council voted to censure Barry and strip him of two important committee posts after an investigation concluded he had misused public money by winning a $15,000 contract for a sometime-girlfriend.
Master’s DegreeThe censure did little to dent his image among his constituents: he won re-election in 2012 with 73 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary and 88 percent in the general election.
Marion Shepilov Barry Jr. was born on March 6, 1936, in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and grew up in Memphis, one of 10 children raised by a single mother. He graduated from LeMoyne-Owen College in 1958 and received a master’s degree in organic chemistry from Fisk University in 1960.
STORY: Weekends in Hong Kong are Dedicated to Protests
While in school, Barry became active in the fledgling effort to secure equal rights for blacks, and in 1960 he was named chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He dropped out of a doctoral program in chemistry at the University of Tennessee to turn his attention to the civil-rights movement.
He moved to Washington in 1965 to set up a SNCC chapter in the nation’s capital, only to quit the organization after a successor, Stokely Carmichael, talked about “black power,” and another, H. Rap Brown, called violence “as American as cherry pie.” Both men later joined the Black Panther Party.
By Jonathan D. Salant and Joe Sabo November 23, 2014
Marion Barry, the civil-rights leader who became a polarizing political figure during two spans as mayor of Washington, D.C., separated by a prison sentence for drug possession, has died. He was 78.
He died today at United Medical Center in Washington, less than a day after he was released from Howard University Hospital, his family said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
His long history of health troubles included diabetes, a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the 1990s and a kidney transplant in 2009. He was hospitalized for 16 days in January 2014.
STORY: What Obama Didn't Get Done in Asia
Barry retained his popularity with residents of the nation’s capital even after his arrest on drug charges, reports of womanizing and cocaine use, and failure to pay U.S. income taxes.
As the city’s second elected mayor, from 1979 to 1991, and fourth elected mayor, from 1995 to 1999, he boosted spending on government programs, increased the city payroll and gave contracts to minority-owned firms.
The Washington Post reported in 1998 that D.C. government, under Barry, had hired more municipal employees than any other U.S. city.
STORY: After CSX Settlement, More Trial Lawyers Will Be Sued Under RICO
Also part of the Barry record were guilty pleas or convictions of more than a dozen people in his administration for misconduct in office. Courts appointed receivers to oversee city agencies that provided public housing and cared for the mentally ill. In 1995, the U.S. Congress took away much of his remaining power by creating the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which oversaw city finances through 2001.
‘Very Bright’“He was very bright, with wonderful leadership and oratorical skills,” said former U.S. Representative James Walsh, a New York Republican who chaired the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversaw spending for the District of Columbia. “But he didn’t have a clue how to run a city.”
The politically resilient Barry returned to politics in 2004, winning a seat on the City Council representing Ward 8, the city’s poorest.
STORY: Why Obama's Courtship of Myanmar Backfired
In 2010, the council voted to censure Barry and strip him of two important committee posts after an investigation concluded he had misused public money by winning a $15,000 contract for a sometime-girlfriend.
Master’s DegreeThe censure did little to dent his image among his constituents: he won re-election in 2012 with 73 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary and 88 percent in the general election.
Marion Shepilov Barry Jr. was born on March 6, 1936, in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and grew up in Memphis, one of 10 children raised by a single mother. He graduated from LeMoyne-Owen College in 1958 and received a master’s degree in organic chemistry from Fisk University in 1960.
STORY: Weekends in Hong Kong are Dedicated to Protests
While in school, Barry became active in the fledgling effort to secure equal rights for blacks, and in 1960 he was named chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He dropped out of a doctoral program in chemistry at the University of Tennessee to turn his attention to the civil-rights movement.
He moved to Washington in 1965 to set up a SNCC chapter in the nation’s capital, only to quit the organization after a successor, Stokely Carmichael, talked about “black power,” and another, H. Rap Brown, called violence “as American as cherry pie.” Both men later joined the Black Panther Party.