With hundreds in attendance, D.C. leaders gathered on a windy March 3, in front of City Hall to honor the late Marion Barry, a man known as D.C.’s “mayor for life.”
“Barry, Barry, Barry!” the crowd often shouted to express their love and appreciation for the icon.
The eight-foot bronze statue by artist Steven Weitzman depicts the former mayor with his hand held high, waving to everyone on Pennsylvania Avenue. The sculpture of the civil rights activist is a symbol of success for some people and a public disgrace to others.
“There is a question that you hear: what is this love for Marion Barry? Why do they love him so?” said Rock Newman, a political activist and journalist on Howard University Television. “Well, it starts with his unmistakable commitment to service to those who are voiceless, hopeless sometimes and helpless.”
“Marion Barry was always committed to making sure that those at the top helped those at the bottom,” Newman continued. “More importantly, he promulgated policies that made sure that those who didn’t have could have. He made sure that those who had a desire to lift themselves up, had an opportunity to do so.”
From his civil rights activism to his becoming mayor in 1978, Barry paved the way for African-Americans to climb the ladder of economic success.
In 1967, Barry co-founded a group called Pride Inc. that helped unemployed black men find jobs. Before Pride Inc., Barry worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where he was heavily involved in fundraising and protests for bus fare increases.
In 1971, Barry became the president of D.C.’s Board of Education. Three years later, Barry became an at-large member of D.C. City Council.
As Newman mentioned in his speech, Barry worked in spite of significant opposition. In 1977, radical Black Muslims shot Barry in front of the John A. Wilson Building, the city’s government headquarters. The bullet stopped near his heart, according to The Washington Post.
But, almost facing death didn’t stop Barry. With the campaign slogan, “Take a Stand,” he won D.C’s race for mayor with a breeze, not once, but twice as he was re-elected in 1982 with 82 percent of District votes. However, voter turnout for the mayor did decline to 61 percent by his third term.
During the height of the American crack epidemic, Barry’s political career took a dramatic pause. A federal judge sentenced the mayor to six months in prison and ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine for cocaine possession.
Barry’s drug use gave, the judge said, “aid, comfort and encouragement,” to drug dealers in the city. Despite the criticism, the judges acknowledged that Barry was not only a criminal at the time, but a victim, deserving of as much compassion as one so afflicted,” the Post reported.
During the sentencing, Barry expressed his remorse in a brief statement.
Through his ambitious tenure as mayor, Barry continued to fight for District residents. He created policies that opened the government to marginalized African-Americans, shifting a share of power to a growing black middle class in the city. Barry also encouraged policies for a redevelopment of Downtown Washington. D.C’s redevelopment plan is still in effects today, making D.C. one of the best places to live in the United States.
As Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton called for a “free D.C,” during the ceremony, the delegate made one thing clear: “Opinions about Marion Barry will always vary, but no one can doubt the deep loving affection of many Washingtonians for Barry.”
“For those skeptics who will inevitably question why Marion is getting a statue,” said Cora Masters-Barry, the former mayor’s wife. “It is because of his selfless service. It is because he served his people until the day he died.”
Cora Barry’s statement is indeed true.
Years after Barry won his fourth term as mayor of D.C. in 1994, he made a comeback in 2004 as Ward 8 Councilmember, until his death in 2014.
“A lot of people who are not from D.C. like to think of the low point in Barry’s career,” said Lois Cooper, a longtime District resident. “But, he was an amazing politician and visionary,” she continued. “He did a lot for this city in terms of senior living and jobs. He gave me my first job, so I like to remember the whole man and not just a segment of him.”
As Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled the historic statue of the D.C. icon, many in the crowd shouted as they wept, “Barry is back.”
Mayor Marion Barry is one of three African Americans with a full body statue in Washington, D.C.
