A dream deferred; a black mayor betrays the faith - Philadelphia mayor - W. Wilson Goode

Washington Monthly, July-August, 1986 by Chuck Stone

Barry attacked Washington's administration for "bumbling and bungling in an inefficiently run city government.' Barry told stories of people waiting in lines for half a day to get drivers licenses and city hall bureaucrats not answering citizens phone calls. He posed as one of the new generation, ready to take over and make the city work, responsive to the needs of black people in the city, promising to end the "caretaker' concept of government. "The issue in the election of 1978 is energetic leadership, leadership which [is] chosen by the people, to do the people's bidding,' he said during the campaign.

Ironically, Barry won a very close race by carrying the white wards, in large part because of key Washington Post endorsements. The paper's all-white editors were tired of badly run city government, but also romanded by an image of Barry as radical transformed into mainstream politician. "He is still remembered, by some, for a supposed excess of militancy in the 1960s,' the Post wrote. "We would argue, on the contrary, that Marion Barry . . . has shown a commendable capacity for growth and a considerable talent for accomodation.'

It wasn't until he was reelected in 1982 that Barry gained the support of the majority of blacks. In 1978, older blacks split their vote between the incumbent Washington and the well-financed Sterling Tucker. These Washington and Tucker supporters were established, middle-class blacks with strong historical roots in the city who viewed Barry as an ill-mannered upstart whose embarrassing behavior would likely damage home-rule. Barry's small black support in 1978 came from young blacks, the civil rights crowd that identified him as a man who fought against segregation and was now ready to take control of 44,000 city employees and a $2 billion budget in 1979. This was what the black "revolutionaries' had dreamed of in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Now Barry was in a position to make that dream come to life.

Sex, drugs, and low interest loans

In the seven and a half years since Barry took office, his administration has achieved some notable successes: a highly acclaimed summer jobs program, booming downtown development, a strengthened financial picture, and a generally improved image for the city. But these are not the centerpieces of the administration, for soon after Barry took office a troubling pattern emerged: instead of shaping a government more responsive to the poor or devising creative solutions to the city's mounting problems, the administration seemed to produce mostly a stream of scandals. And instead of providing the dynamic leadership he had promised, Barry seemed more interested in indulging himself.

The first major scandal broke in December 1979, less than a year after the reformer was sworn in. Barry and his wife had accepted a low-rate mortgage from a local banker who was competing for development rights to a city-owned tract of land. The banker had put Barry's wife on the bank's board of directors and now he had given the new mayor a 3 1/4 point discount on a $100,000 mortgage, a savings of $242 a month. Barry at first denied he had been given special treatment, but eventually gave up the discount after local media continued to report the story.