Marion Barry Quotes (6 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Marion Barry Quotes

Marion Shepilov Barry was an American politician who served as the second mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, representing as an at-large member from 1975 to 1979 and in Ward 8 from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2005 to 2014. In the 1960s he was involved in the civil rights movement, first as a member of the Nashville Student Movement and then serving as the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee .

Barry came to national prominence as mayor of the national capital, the first prominent civil rights activist to become chief executive of a major American city. He gave the presidential nomination speech for Jesse Jackson at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. His celebrity was transformed into international notoriety in January 1990, when he was videotaped during a sting operation smoking crack cocaine and was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation officials on drug charges. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry from seeking re-election, and he served six months in a federal prison. After his release, he was elected to the Council of the District of Columbia in 1992. He was elected again as mayor in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.

Despite his history of political and legal controversies, Barry was a popular and influential figure in Washington, D.C. The alternative weekly Washington City Paper nicknamed him "Mayor for life", a designation that remained long after Barry left the mayoralty. The Washington Post once stated that "to understand the District of Columbia, one must understand Marion Barry". Wikipedia

✵ 6. March 1936 – 23. November 2014

Marion Barry: 6 quotes 0 likes

Famous Marion Barry Quotes

“They made all this up to justify questioning me. It's all made up. I don't know what happened. Whatever they say was all made up.”

Marion Barry

Responding to allegations by Park Police that he was found with a white substance under his nose and trace amounts of cocaine in his car, as quoted in The Washington Post (26 March 2002), p. B2
2000s