Marion S. Barry Jr (1936 - 2014)

Born 6 Mar 1936 in Itta Bena, Leflore, Mississippi, United States

Husband of Mary Janine (Miller) Threadwell — married 1972 (to 1977) in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Husband of Cora Lavonne (Masters) Barry — married 1993 (to 2014) in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Died 23 Nov 2014 at age 78 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

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Preceded by 3rd Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly 1st Mayor Walter Washington

Marion S. Barry 4th Mayor of the District of Columbia 1995—1999 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia 1979—1991

Succeeded by 5th Mayor Anthony Williams 3rd Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly

Biography

Marion Barry Jr is Notable.

Marion was a Freemason, Meridian Lodge No. 6, Washington D.C..

Marion Barry, a charismatic 1960s civil rights activist, served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, from 1975 to 1979, from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2005 to 2014. He was elected Mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. His forced resignation from office during his third term as a result of his 1990 arrest and conviction on drug charges did not keep him from re-election to the D.C. Council or to the mayoralty; he served a fourth term as Mayor from 1995 to 1999, and represented Ward 8 from 2008 until his death in 2014.^[1]

Marion S. Barry, third child of Marion Barry and Mattie Carr, was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi in 1936. He was four when his father died, and his mother moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee, where she remarried to David Cummings and they raised eight children together. Young Marion had a paper route and became an Eagle Scout. He stated in his autobiography that he chose the name, Shepilov, with regard to his middle initial S, which had initially stood for nothing, after having found Soviet politician Dmitri Shepilov's name in newspapers: "I had picked out "Shepilov" as a middle name because it was the only one that I knew and liked."^[1]

While in graduate school for organic chemistry at Fisk University, Barry was arrested several times while participating in the Nashville sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters, and other Civil Rights Movement events. In 1960, Barry was elected as the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized voter registration projects. He led protests against racial segregation and discrimination.^[1]

He married his first wife, Blantie Evans, in 1962. They had no children.

After attending the Democratic National Convention in 1964, he was asked to go to Washington, D.C. to manage the SNCC office there. At that time, its population was majority Black, and D.C. had no political representation with the U.S. Government until home rule was established in 1974.^[1] He left the SNCC in 1967, and that year he and Mary (Miller) Treadwell co-founded Pride, Inc., a job-training program for unemployed black men and youth, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Barry became even more active in the Civil Rights Movement. Through Pride, Inc. he was able to organize several outreach programs such as free food distribution, as well as becoming the board member of the city's Economic Development Committee, routing funds and venture capital to the hard-hit riot areas of Washington, D.C.

He got an annulment, and he and Mary (Miller) Treadwell married in 1972. Their five year marriage did not produce children.

He was a member of Prince Hall Freemasons, Meridian Lodge No. 6, Washington, D.C.^[2]

Political Career

Nashville, Tennessee Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Chairman

In office: 1960–1961

Washington, D.C. Board of Education, Member

In Office: 1971

Washington, D.C. Board of Education, President

In Office: 1972-1974

Washington, D.C. Council of the District of Columbia, Councilman-at-Large

In office: January 2, 1975 – January 2, 1979

On March 9, 1977, while serving on the D.C. City Council, Barry was shot near his heart by radical Hanafi Muslim terrorists when they overran the District Building taking hostages during the two-day Hanafi Siege.

Washington, D.C. 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia

In office: January 2, 1979 – January 2, 1991

Washington, D.C. Council of the District of Columbia, Councilman from Ward 8

In office: January 2, 1993 – January 2, 1995

Washington, D.C. 4th Mayor of the District of Columbia

In office: January 2, 1995 – January 2, 1999

Washington, D.C. Council of the District of Columbia, Councilman from Ward 8

In office: January 2, 2005 – November 23, 2014

Drug Arrest and Conviction

What dragged me down was not being Mayor - it was insecurity, the need to be accepted by everyone, the pleasure syndrome. That's what brought me down. - Marion Barry

Late 1989, federal officials had been investigating Marion Barry on suspicion of illegal drug possession and use. He was captured on a surveillance camera smoking crack cocaine during a joint sting operation by the FBI and D.C. Police.

On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with a former girlfriend, Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore, in a sting operation at the Vista International Hotel by the FBI and D.C. police for crack cocaine use and possession. Barry was charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine. The criminal trial ended in August 1990 with a conviction for only one possession incident, which had occurred in November 1989, and an acquittal on another. The Jury was deadlocked on the remaining charges, and the presiding Judge, Thomas Penfield, was forced to declare a mistrial.

Barry did not seek re-election as Mayor for the 1990 election but he did continue as mayor throughout his arrest and trial, and he decided to run for an at-large seat on the D.C. Council against incumbent and friend, Hilda Mason. He was ultimately sentenced to six months in federal prison prior to the November 1990 election for the at-large seat on the Council. He lost the election to Hilda Mason, the only election to political office that he ever lost.

In October 1991, Marion Barry surrendered to the Federal correctional facility in Petersburg, Virginia. He was transferred to the federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania before being released in April 1992.

Marion Barry changed America with his unmitigated gall to stand up in the ashes of where he had fallen and come back to win. - Maya Angelou

In 1993, Barry would rejoin the political world by being elected as a Councilman to the Washington, D.C. Council for Ward 8. He ran under the slogan "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." He would also run again for Mayor of Washington, D.C. in 1994, winning the election with 56% of the vote.

Family

He was married four times and had one son, Marion Christopher Barry.

1. Blantie Evans (1962–1964) (annulled per Marion Barry)
2. Mary Miller Treadwell (1972–1977)
3. Effi Slaughter (1978–1993)
   1. Marion Christopher Barry (1980-2016)
4. Cora Masters (1993–2014)^[3]

Death and Burial

Marion Barry, Jr. died on November 23, 2014 from a heart attack in Washington, D.C. He was 78 years old. He is buried at the Congressional Cemetery with his tombstone proudly stating, "Mayor for Life, beloved forever."

Legacy

In 2014, his book, Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr. was released. It's a memoir based on his early life fighting for civil rights through his four mayoral terms and past his drug conviction, and a political history of Washington, D.C.'s fight for representation. The book was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Biography.

Most people don’t know me … they don’t know about all of the fighting I’ve done to manage a government that was progressive and more oriented to uplift the people rather than suppress them. That’s what I want my legacy to be. I was a freedom fighter, and a fighter for the economic livelihood of not only black people but all people. - Marion Barry

On March 8, 2008, Mayor Barry, the "Mayor for Life" of Washington, D.C., was honored with an 8 ft. tall statue on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Marion Barry Jr. Statue on Pennsylvania Avenue

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Wikipedia contributors, "Marion Barry," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry
2. ↑ https://phaohio.org/famous-prince-hall-masons
3. ↑ Marriage: "U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current"
   The Akron Beacon Journal; Publication Date: 10/ Jan/ 1994; Publication Place: Akron, Ohio, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/151285829/?article=fcebfad1-243b-4830-9204-59c65bf38f44&focus=0.024619978,0.47594783,0.1821101,0.5858065&xid=3398
   Ancestry Record 62116 #110388129 (accessed 23 October 2022)
   Mayor Marion Barry marriage to Cora Masters on 15 Jan 1994 in Washington, Ohio, USA.

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYGP-3L8 : 4 January 2021), Marian Barrier in household of Marian Barrier, Beat 5, Holmes, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 26-27, sheet 11B, line 54, family 186, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2029.
• Marion Barry, Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr., (New York: Strebor Books, 2014)
• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KTSG-LYS : 19 December 2019), Marion J Barry, 2003-2008.

See also:

• HBO Movie: The Nine Lives of Marion Barry
• Telling His Story: Interviews with Marion Barry
• "SNCC May Call Bus Boycott," Baltimore Afro-American, January 1, 1966.
• Sharon LaFraniere, "Barry Arrested on Cocaine Charges in Undercover FBI, Police Operation," Washington Post, Friday, Jan. 19, 1990, p. A01
• Michael Janofsky, "The 1994 Campaign: The Comeback Man in the News: From Disgrace to 'Amazing Grace': Marion Shepilov Barry Jr.," The New York Times, (September 14, 1994).
• Wikipedia: Marion Barry Jr
• Wikidata: Item Q938243, en:Wikipedia
• Wikipedia Votes: Marion Barry Electoral History
• Wikipedia List of Eagle Scouts: Eagle Scouts
• Family Search: PID#L2HG-CTX
• Find A Grave: Memorial #139128250