One of the most controversial politicians of our time, Marion Barry, is dead. Barry was 78 years old. He was first elected mayor of Washington, DC in 1978. He gained international attention in 1990 when he was videotaped in a FBI sting smoking crack with a female friend in a DC hotel. “That B#$%^ set me up” were Barry’s words that some repeated for years. Despite being caught in the FBI sting, Barry who faced many charges, was only convicted of a single count of drug possession. He was sentenced to six months in jail. This conviction did not stop Marion Barry. Barry later returned to politics where he won a city council seat and ultimately won as mayor… again in 1994.
“Marion Barry changed America with his unmitigated gall to stand up in the ashes of where he had fallen and come back to win,” poet Maya Angelou said in 1999. Condolences go out to the family as they deal with his lost.
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