Marion Barry dies; 4-term D.C. mayor the most powerful local politician of his generation

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Marion Barry Jr., the Mississippi sharecropper’s son and civil rights activist who served three terms as mayor of the District of Columbia, survived a drug arrest and jail sentence, and then came back to win a fourth term as the city’s chief executive, died early Sunday at United Medical Center in Washington. He was 78.

Mr. Barry, who also served on the D.C. Council for 15 years and had been president of the city’s old Board of Education, was the most influential and savvy local politician of his generation. He dominated the city’s political landscape in the final quarter of the 20th century. There was a time when his critics, in sarcasm but not entirely in jest, called him “Mayor for Life.” Into the first dozen years of the new millennium, he remained a highly visible player on the city’s political stage, but by then on the periphery, no longer at the center.

His personal and public life was fraught with high drama and irony. He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, relapse and recovery. He was married four times, divorced three times and separated from his fourth wife. His extramarital liaisons and legal trouble over unpaid taxes made news.

He came to Washington as a champion of the downtrodden and the dispossessed and rose to the pinnacle of power and prestige. As mayor of the District, Mr. Barry became a national symbol of self-governance and home rule for urban blacks.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/marion-barry-dies-4-term-dc-mayor-the-most-powerful-local-politician-of-his-generation/2014/11/23/331ad222-c5da-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html

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My friend who works in DC randomly Facebook messaged me his name. That's how I realized that Barry died.

[elleng]

1. No SH*T!

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/dc/2014/11/23/marion-barry-dies-78-years-old/19437553/

Big show on local PBS station tonight, DC in the 80s, contained a LOT about him.

[nitpicker]

2. BBC also reporting this

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30166759

[alp227]

3. NYT as well

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/us/politics/marion-s-barry-jr-former-mayor-of-washington-dies-at-78.html

and AP: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/107f93d6f2c9499194c7f4e141654398/former-dc-mayor-marion-barry-dies-78

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Just turned on CNN and they're reporting this, too. n/t

[JohnnyRingo]

5. That's sad...

..though he lived a decidedly checkered career in politics, he seemed considerably more honest than most.

RIP

[Rhiannon12866]

6. WUSA: Marion Barry dies at 78

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- Former DC Mayor Marion Barry has died on Sunday morning, according to his family.

Family and very close associates are gathering at this hour at United Medical Center in Southeast, DC as word spreads.

The 78-year-old Barry was just released from Howard University Hospital this evening where he had been admitted on Thursday.

Barry had told reporter Johnson by phone that he was there for observation.

"He sounded very weak when we talked Thursday evening; but he sounded better when he called me Friday morning," Johnson said.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/dc/2014/11/23/marion-barry-dies-78-years-old/19437553/



Former Mayor and current DC City Council member Marion Barry arrives at a media availability to endorse Mayor Vincent Gray's bid for re-election, Wednesday, March 19, 2014 in Washington.
(Photo: Alex Brandon AP)

[Droning Predator]

7. Death set him up!

Sorry, but I've no sympathy for the man.

[MADem]

8. Oh wow--he was larger than life, that guy. Supremely confident, even when he shouldn't have been!

One thing I will say about the Mayor, he lived large. And people were loyal to him, because he did do a lot of good in DC.

[phil89]

9. I hope his victims

are moving on with things.

[Recursion]

10. His victims? (nt)

[FarPoint]

15. Did you imply that you, yourself as being one of his victims?

Please share your pain as this could be breaking news...The world awaits clarification of said victims.

[Recursion]

11. He was shot during the '77 Hanafi siege?

Wow, I had no idea, and I thought I knew Barry's story pretty well...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Hanafi_Siege

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Wow. Just heard on the radio.

He was certainly a powerful and controversial political icon and plodded on amidst the requisite D.C. drama and his own drama. Yet his many many supporters remained loyal to him to the end.

R.I.P. and condolences to his family.

[MrScorpio]

13. I met him once

It was quite incidental. As I was walking into a local DC bookstore that specialized black literature, and quite by chance, he was walking out.

I said hello to him, reflexively called him "Mayor Berry," even though he had long since left office by that time. He was quite friendly and we shook hands. I asked him if he recommended that store and he did. The interaction only lasted a moment or so, but I got the impression that he had gone through so much and was in the midst of trying to come back.

A few years later, he did. He won a seat on the city council and championed the rebirth of South East DC, the city's once deeply troubled most black community.

Unfortunately, we never met again and it was my last year in DC before I went to Europe.

In spite of his personal issues, the residents of DC, and I'm talking about the mostly black residents whose ties there goes back for generations, knew that Mr. Berry was their champion. And he always was.

May he rest in power.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Very cool story. Thank you for sharing it.

I guess we shouldn't be shocked when someone dies at 78, but I was still shocked to hear this. He really did seem larger than life. Godspeed, Mayor Barry.

[FarPoint]

17. Mr Berry represents leadership.

He is a true survivor who showed us all how to overcome conflict and survive successfully. May he rest in peace.

[Recursion]

23. He would go east of the river and ask for votes

Others wouldn't. People seemed to be mystified by it but he won because he would talk to people and try to help them.

Some of his ideas were kind of silly (the Chinatown gate comes to mind), but the revitalization of the 14th st/Georgia Ave area is because of his work, even though Tony Williams gets the credit for it.

[FarPoint]

26. He gave a heartfelt effort with genuine good intentions for constituents...

Verses what big business or lobbyst types wanted...I noticed that from Ohio. I tend to look beneath the rhetoric

[Laughing Mirror]

28. He lived East of the River a good number of years

He represented Ward 8 (East of River) on City Council and died in a hospital in that ward.

I liked him in the beginning. He supported gay people so we supported him. Then, 35 years go by, and he turns his back on us a few years ago when same-sex marriage came to DC in 2009, and things just weren't the same.

He was in bad health, but trying to stay in control and he began acting up and doing all kinds of strange things, making, for example, bigoted comments about Asians who have businesses in the ward he represents. He wanted his drug dealer son to take over his seat on city council, should he pass. The old man seemed to be losing it. But still Ward 8 kept voting him back in.

His passing marks the end of an era. DC will never be the same with Marion Barry no longer here.

[Recursion]

21. The one on 14th & W?

I think it's a coffee shop now.

[MrScorpio]

22. It was over 20 years ago...

Unfortunately both the name of the bookstore and the location are a bit fuzzy to me.

Sorry.

[Comrade Grumpy]

27. Maybe Vertigo Books on Connecticut Ave just south of Dupont Circle?

That was the city's leading black bookstore for a long time, even though it was owned by a white couple who hailed from Wisconsin. I worked there for awhile.

[Recursion]

30. I was thinking of the place that is now Busboys & Poets

It used to be an African American bookstore, and Barry was probably more likely to have been hanging around 14th & U than 19th & M...

[MrScorpio]

31. That wasn't it.

I used to spend quite a bit a time on Dupont Circle at a record store there.

The store where I met Mr. Berry that one time was actually all black owned and operated.

[Comrade Grumpy]

32. I remember that record store (but not its name).

I used to have an office above it.

[MrScorpio]

33. 12 Inch Dance Records. nt

[TBF]

24. He was mayor

when I lived in Washington DC. He was a champion for the residents of DC (not the transitional politicians). I know there were problems too but he was loved by many. Safe passage Mr. Mayor.

[Glimmer of Hope]

16. DC won't be the same.

Never give up and it is ok to make mistakes. RIP Mayor Barry.

[Sunlei]

18. RIP. He helped shape DC and cared for the people very much. Marion Barry (D-Ward 8)

[IronLionZion]

19. Since we should only say good of the dead

Marion Barry is dead, good.

[BronxBoy]

25. Why is it good that he's dead??????

He had his struggles but he did an awful lot of good for a population that still too this day has second class status......

[IronLionZion]

35. Sure, for some people

I live in DC. Dude was a racist corrupt asshole who survived on a patronage system handing out favors to his friends while demonizing the "others" usually based on race or income. He has spewed forth nasty shit about Asians and Asian-Americans in DC. There's a reason why his sphere of influence got smaller as his power got more limited to his lower income ward in southeast. Dude couldn't win a district-wide election today.

Sure he's done a lot for those who he considers "his constituents", but not for the rest of us.

At this point, If I were a Republican, I'd ask you if he's done so much good stuff for them, why are they still poor?

[packman]

20. Mixed feelings about the man and his life

Spent a significant part of my life in the suburbs of D.C. and there was a recognizable-almost palpable strain of having a black mayor in charge of the District through those years in the early 80's from the white surrounding suburbs. I can recall the crack cocaine video and FBI bust in early 90's . Even in jail, he was involved in a sexual act with his visiting wife at the time. Then after release, he got reelected to the city council and then reelected again a few years later as mayor. Drove the white establishment crazy with frustration that the people of DC could elect/reelect/re-reelect/re-re-reelect a man with such character flaws.

[JonLP24]

29. Was he good at policy

That's what matters to me. I don't care about drugs.

[sofa king]

34. I thought he was.

I was a nearby observer, one of the suburban rat-racers of DC. The thing to remember about Barry's "comeback" is that it wouldn't have been possible were it not for the budgetary implosion of Washington--which was in part caused by Newt Gingrich's meddling with DC appropriations in the House.

He played it pretty straight that last term, though most of it was spent with the city in some weird receivership status that made sure a bunch of white people had financial control of the city.

I think that the most astute observer of Marion Barry and his time in DC politics was Derek McGinty. He's moved on up to television now, I think, and it would be worth seeing what he has to say, in retrospect. If I find that, I'll put it here.

[Adrahil]

38. I'm not so sure about that....

I grew up very close by DC, and he always seemed to be involved in some sort of crony good-deal. Not to mention he was a classic misogynist... he had little respect for women in private, and had his own private room at the Camelot "gentlman's club."

IMO, his early civil rights crusading days gave way to corruption.

[AverageJoe90]

36. Not exactly the best mayor D.C. could have had, from all I've read.

Still, though, he did do *some* good over the years. R.I.P. Mr. Barry.

[Adrahil]

37. He may have started off with his heart in the right place...

... but he was a scum-sucking asshole in the end.