The Many Places of Marion Barry - Festering Like a Boil

When last we left him, Marion Barry had been shipped off to the Federal Correction Institution in Petersburg, VA to serve out his six month term. Naturally, he couldn't keep himself out of trouble, so he was transferred to a higher security facility in Loretto, Pennsylvania. But the Man couldn't keep Prisoner No. 14856016 down forever, and on April 23, 1992, six busloads of hundreds of cheering supporters escorted the Mayor-for-Life home.

Barry promptly moved to new digs in Ward 8, which had been the only part of the city to support him in a failed at-large bid in 1990, and ran for Councilmember for that district, bumping off Wilhelminia Rolark in a 3:1 victory. He ran, apparently without irony, under the slogan "He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for DC", reinforcing our low bar for political leaders. While at the time he professed no desire for the mayor's seat, people had long since stopped believing him and no one was surprised when he ran again in 1994, defeating Republican Carol Schwartz with 56% of the vote, making Carol's 42% he highest percentage ever for a Republican in the District.

Unfortunately for DC, Barry had failed to pick up any new administrative skills in the joint, and his mismanagement led to a Federal takeover of Washington, DC in 1995, thereby giving real weight to the unfortunate argument that DC can't handle our own affairs. Barry's decision not to run for re-election in 1998 was greeted by a sigh of relief by many Washingtonians, who hopped he would fade gently into that good night.

Well, of course we all must have been smoking crack, because Barry would not be kept down. He announced plans to run again in 2002 for an at-large seat on the Council but they came to a halt when Barry was caught with $5 in crack and a "powdery substance" on his nose in his parked Jaguar in Buzzard's Point, SW on March 23, 2002. While he flung the usual accusations of police entrapment and racism, Barry did resign from the Council race for personal reasons. His fourth wife had just left him, perhaps because a young "campaign worker" had been with him when he was stopped that night.

With an attempt to win a District-wide seat in tatters, Barry fell back to Ward 8 again. Being the only place that would have him at this point, he displaced incumbent Sandy Allen, who joined the long list of folks who have felt betrayed by Marion Barry. This is the seat he holds today.

Just a year or so into his new term came news that he had failed to file income taxes in like, forever. He pled guilty to misdemeanor tax charges on October 28, 2005 and as part of the terms of his release while he waited to be sentenced, he was required to submit to drug screening, which of course he failed. This caused some speculation/wishful thinking that this would be the end of Barry's political life, but he only received three years of probation. Nor was any action taken the next year when he again failed to file taxes. Makes me wonder why I bother paying mine.

In early January of 2006, Barry spent some time talking to police as a crime victim instead of his usual position as a suspect, which I can only imagine would be a refreshing change for him. After helping him load his groceries into his apartment on the 2600 block of Douglas Place SE, two young men from the community held him up. Interestingly, Barry seemed more shocked not that a mugging would take place in his high-crime neighborhood, but rather that he personally would be a target. "There's sort of an unwritten code in Washington among the underworld, the hustlers, and these other guys that I'm their friend." he claimed. Who are we to dispute that?

A few weeks later, Barry decided to join a new church, leaving Union Temple for the 12,000 member Temple of Praise. Barry had been feuding for some time with Union's Rev. Willie Wilson, most memorably after "Barry called a press conference to unveil a giant machine, which he says turns garbage into electricity and drinking water, in the parking lot across from Wilson's church." Yes, you read that correctly. 

The hits kept on coming for Barry in '06. In May, he was sited for a light night fender bender where he hit a car when pulling out of a parking spot. By all accounts he was sober at the time. On September 10, 2006, the Secret Service pulled him over for running a red light a block from the White House. They noticed he  He was also cited for by the Park Police for driving too slowly in a separate incident at 25th and Alabama Ave., SE. He would be acquitted in both incidents. And, my personal favorite, On September 28, 2007 a "break-in" at his new apartment on Orange St., SE robbed the Councilmember of his five Rolexes, seven Omegas, eight Seikos, and 50 assorted cuff links, many of which were acquired while Barry was not filing his income taxes. Assuming they existed anyway, Barry was curiously reluctant to have MPD investigate the "crime". Oh, and he continued to escape jail time while repeatedly violating his probation.

And then, most recently, on July 4th of last year, a Park Police Officer stumbled upon Barry and his girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt having an argument in Anacostia Park. While the charges of stalking wouldn't stick, subsequent investigation revealed that Barry had been awarding Watts-Brighthaupt earmarked city contracts and receiving kickbacks from her. And, as always, Barry continued to treat his girlfriend with his traditional gallantry (see clip 10, NSFW).

Which is where we stand today. In the wake of the overwhelming evidence the Council report came to the "conclusion that Mr. Barry's conduct not only created an appearance of impropriety, but was in fact improper". Barry was censured this week in a unanimous vote and stripped of his committee assignments. While this would no doubt be the end of any ordinary politician, the rousing reception he received in the recent State of Ward 8 address indicates that those residents seem perfectly happy with their representation. For their sake, I hope that crowd is not indicative of voters there.

View Mapping Marion in a larger map

The Many Places of Marion Barry - The Rise

View Mapping Marion in a larger map

Most residents of Washington, DC have long since stopped being amused by the antics of former "Mayor For Life" and current City Councilmember Marion Barry. There's nothing that makes me cringe more when I get the almost inevitable question from a visitor as "Marion Barry, isn't he your Mayor?". And it goes beyond simple embarrassment; our long fought and way overdue struggle to achieve a modicum of political rights is inevitably hampered with the response; "Statehood for DC? Why, then Marion Barry would be a Senator!" A fair, if frustrating and unlikely point, although I should point out even if he was, he'd hardly be alone in embarrassing that august institution.

But it does me no good to fight it. While once again my city is embarrassed as yet more disgusting revelations poor forth about Mr. Barry, I've decided to take a little stroll back through his reign in DC. Pretending the residents of Ward 8 will rise up and rid us of him has been fruitless, hoping he will go away fails to work, so let's just admit the man has a certain cachet and let's take a look back through the many places he's graced us in the last three decades.

We should start out by noting that Barry didn't appear out of thin air. He wasn't always the long running joke he is today, and we should remember the conditions that allowed him to achieve power and ultimately hold political office. Washington, DC in the early seventies was just beginning to work itself out after centuries of racial tension, with the 1968 riots following the assassination of Dr. King still fresh in everyone's mind. The two very separate, and not at all equal, worlds of white and black Washington were making the very first outreaches towards each other, amidst a legacy of mistrust and outright hate. The old older was dead, but the way forward was hardly clear.

Into this chaotic brew stepped a personable civil rights leader, former chemistry teacher, and Eagle Scout; Marion Shepilov Berry, Jr. Avowedly anti-establishment, he had added the middle name in college as a homage to Soviet propagandist Dmtiri Shepilov. He moved to DC as head of the local Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and got off to a strong start by organizing a boycott of DC Transit, Washington's bus system, in protest of a 5 cent fare increase. He would soon quit the SNCC, which was becoming increasingly militant, as opportunities started to open within city government. Barry was elected to the DC School Board, the only form of local democracy permitted the residents of Washington in 1971, and, when Home Rule changed that in 1974, he won an at-large seat on the new City Council. Slowly but steadily he moved up the ladder of DC politics, working more within the system and attacking it less from outside as time went on.

While serving as a Council-member, Marion Barry would be vaulted into nationwide prominence by a chaotic and deadly terrorist attack. A group of American-born Muslims, styling themselves as Hanalfi, seized three buildings in Washington, DC: the headquarters of B'nai B'rith on Rhode Island Avenue; the Islamic Center on Massachusetts Ave; and DC's City Hall (now known as the Wilson Building) on Pennsylvania Avenue. In the chaos of the attack, Marion Barry was hit with a ricocheted shotgun pellet in the chest, although he was relatively lucky with a superficial wound. WHUR-FM reporter Maurice Williams was killed in the attack (the fifth floor press room has been renamed for him) and DC Protective Service Police Officer Mark Cantrell died a few days later of a heart attack. The subsequent publicity would be enough for Barry to win the Mayoral election over incumbent Walter Washington.

Mayor Barry was initially of the darling of Georgetown. Liberal whites were attracted to his fiery personality and he actively courted the gay vote by helping to pass the 1978 DC Human Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination based on sexual identity. They were willing to overlook his demands that white owned businesses leave after the '68 riots, his 1970 call for residents to shoot Police Officers executing no-knock warrants, or his urging of African Americans to boycott the celebrations surrounding the Apollo 11 mission. And he got off to a good start, breaking the logjam of a housing development project on Bates Street NW, 15 blocks north of the Capitol and seeming to genuinely attempt to address the concerns of residents. His Summer Youth Employment Program is still fondly remembered by many of the thousands of youths now grown who were provided jobs. He even would occasionally put his Masters in Chemistry to use, substitute teaching at Fletcher-Johnston Educational Center in Capitol Heights.

However, cracks were starting to appear in the facade. On December 22, 1981, Barry attended a Christmas party at "This is It?", a downtown strip club, and allegations soon surfaced that he had either used cocaine, or witnessed others do the same. At the time, a police investigation revealed nothing, which in turn sparked an inquiry by the Justice Department about the inability of DC's police to properly investigate the Mayor. Years later, the owner of the club, Hassan H. Mohammadi, would testify in court that Barry had, in fact, used cocaine here.

Marion Barry's antics would become more and more public throughout the 1980s as his cocaine (and occasionally marijuana) use became an increasingly open secret. Join us tomorrow when they all come to a crashing halt (and you know how that'll happen).