Marion Barry

Politician

Barry’s successful election as mayor of Washington, DC, was emblematic of the rise of young African American civil rights leaders to elective office. His unique political career was marked by a drug conviction, fall from power, and subsequent comeback to regain his former office.

Early Life

Marion Shepilov Barry Jr. was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on March 6, 1936. He was the oldest of eight children born to Marion, Sr., a sharecropper, and Mattie Barry, who also worked in the fields and as a domestic. In 1944, the family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee. Barry excelled as a student at Booker T. Washington High School, where he played football and became an Eagle Scout, graduating in 1954.

Barry attended LeMoyne College immediately after high school, funding his education with a scholarship. It was there that he adopted the middle name “Shepilov.” He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958 and went on to attend graduate school at Fisk University in Nashville, earning his master’s degree two years later. He pursued a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Tennessee at Nashville but left after three years to become the first chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1964, Barry moved to Washington, DC, to lead nonviolent protests for civil rights on behalf of SNCC but left the organization over disagreements with its leadership. He turned his efforts to the creation of Pride, Inc., an organization dedicated to encouraging community pride and small-business growth.

Barry first entered elective office by running for the school board of the District of Columbia in 1971. Once seated on the school board, he quickly rose to become its president. When the US Congress granted the district limited home rule in 1973, Barry decided to run for an at-large seat on the newly formed city council. He exercised considerable influence by becoming chair of the Finance Committee and building a reputation for good fiscal management. He was easily reelected in 1976, gaining nearly three-fourths of the vote in a citywide election.

This display of popular support, as well as marriage to Effi Slaughter, his third wife, gave Barry the confidence to run for mayor in 1978. While most political observers did not think Barry could win, he aimed his campaign at uniting poor and middle-class African American voters in a coalition with liberal whites, women, gays, and senior citizens. The combination proved successful, and Barry defeated the first mayor elected under home rule, Walter Washington, and the city council chairman, Sterling Tucker.

Life’s Work

Upon taking office, Barry immediately acted to bring the city’s finances into order through aggressive efforts to balance the budget and careful auditing. His efforts were aided by increased property tax revenue driven by Barry’s policy encouraging new office construction.

Although he faced eight Democratic opponents in his bid for reelection in 1982, Barry easily overwhelmed his challengers, winning nearly 60 percent of the vote in the primary. In the largely Democratic city of Washington, the nomination virtually guaranteed Barry a second term. After being reelected to a third term in 1986 with equally impressive support, Barry found his administration plagued by a series of financial scandals, a rising crime rate, and confrontations with the congressional committee overseeing the district’s government. As the 1990 election approached, Barry faced the possibility that Jesse Jackson, the former civil rights leader and presidential candidate, might challenge him in the primaries.

Just as Barry was beginning his efforts to gain reelection in January 1990, he was caught smoking crack cocaine in a Washington hotel and arrested as part of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation. Although Barry refused to step down as mayor, he declined to run for a fourth term and lost a bid for an at-large city council seat as an independent after his trial and conviction. Sharon Pratt Dixon succeeded Barry as mayor.

After completing his prison sentence in 1992, Barry began a remarkable political comeback, moving to a new ward and winning election to a seat on the city council by an overwhelming margin. His victory paved the way for a new campaign to become mayor in 1994. Barry’s campaign, with a theme of personal redemption that had strong appeal to voters, challenged Pratt Dixon and councilman John Ray in the Democratic primary. Barry won the nomination with approximately 50 percent of the vote and went on to become mayor for a fourth time.

Barry found that the political atmosphere had changed since he last held the mayor’s office. The US Congress was now controlled by the Republicans, who established a finance control board in 1995 to oversee the city’s budget. By 1997, the board had begun to severely restrict the mayor’s authority. Frustrated, Barry decided against seeking reelection and instead supported Anthony Williams, who eventually became mayor.

Following a brief career as a consultant, Barry was again poised for a political comeback, despite ill health (including prostate cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes) and a divorce. In 2002, he ran for an at-large seat on the city council, but a scandal involving further drug use led him to end his campaign. Later that year, he won election to a council seat from the Eighth Ward. He was reelected in 2008 but was stripped of his committee chair position in 2010 when he was accused of misusing public funds. In 2014, along with cowriter Omar Tyree, Barry published an autobiography titled Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr.

Barry passed away on November 23, 2014, at United Medical Center in Washington, DC, at the age of seventy-eight, not long after having spent several days in the hospital to treat an illness. According to Washington, DC's medical examiner office, the cause of death was related to heart disease that had plagued him for several years. He was survived by his wife, Cora, and his son, Marion Christopher. Only months later, in January 2015, his son announced that he would be attempting to take up his father's mantle by winning his vacated council seat. However, after coming behind in the special election, he left the race amidst legal troubles involving threats made against a bank teller.

Significance

In many ways, Barry’s career is reflective of the larger political changes experienced by the African American community: His rise to politics from the Civil Rights movement mirrored the transition of the movement from street protest to elective office; his successful campaign for mayor represented the new wave of young, African American politicians who dominated urban politics in the late 1970s; and his subsequent drug conviction and return to politics reflected the resiliency of a chastened but contrite individual determined to overcome challenges. At all stages of his career, Barry represented the hopes of the black community in Washington, DC, and his personal failures serve to highlight the sympathy and forgiveness many in that community felt for those attempting to rebuild their lives.

Bibliography

Bacon, Perry, Jr. “Ten Questions for Marion Barry.” Time 165.5 (2005): 8. Print.

Barras, Jonetta Rose. The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in the New Age of Black Leaders. Baltimore: Bancroft, 1998. Print.

Barry, Marion, Jr., and Omar Tyree. Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr. New York: Strebor, 2014. Print.

Jaffee, Harry, and Tom Sherwood. Dream City: Race, Power and the Decline of Washington, DC. New York: Simon, 1994. Print.

Ruffins, Paul. “Marion Barry’s Amazing Race: Unpolitic Washington.” The Nation 259.7 (1994): 228–32. Print.

Stout, David. "Marion Barry, Washington's 'Mayor for Life,' Even after Prison, Dies at 78." New York Times. New York Times, 23 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 June 2016.