Mayor Marion Barry (1936-2014)

Marion Barry, four-term mayor of Washington, has died. Ethel Payne crossed his path several times. Here is an excerpt from EYE ON THE STRUGGLE about one such encounter late in her life. The Capital Press club mentioned here was an African-American alternative to the National Press Club, which did not then accept black members until 1955.

Pages 376-377

But the cane-toting Payne remained a reporter to the last. Mayor Marion Barry, once a well-known and militant civil rights leader, was in his third term as mayor of Washington, DC. The city government was in shambles and the murder rate had reached record levels. Under investigation for his connections to a drug suspect, Barry continued to vehemently deny his not-yet-publicly-known addiction to cocaine. He agreed to speak to the Capital Press Club, perhaps believing he would avoid the kind of questioning he had been receiving from the white media.

“Mr. Mayor,” asked Payne, who had known Barry for decades, “if you had it to do over again, what mistakes would you acknowledge?” Barry replied that he had no errors to admit. Instead he asked Payne for her opinion of him. The question was a mistake. “I think,” she said, “you have a whole pile of stuff to contend with.” An uncomfortable silence descended on the room and the mayor smiled uneasily