Marion Barry

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) served as Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C. from 1979 to 1991. He was forced to leave office during his third term as a result of his arrest and conviction on drug charges but was later again elected to the D.C. council and ultimately to the mayoralty, serving a fourth term from 1995 to 1999.

1980s

 * Just as the Jews did after the Holocaust, never again will be allow this many murders in the streets of Washington, D.C. Never again.
 * At his 1989 inauguration, as quoted in The Washington Post (3 January 1989), p. D1.


 * Outside of the killings, D.C. has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
 * As quoted in USA Today (24 March 1989), p. 2A

1990s

 * Bitch set me up... I shouldn't have come up here... goddamn bitch.
 * Referring to former girlfriend Hazel Diane "Rasheeda" Moore, as quoted in "Jurors View Videotape of Barry Drug Arrest" by Tracy Thompson and Elsa Walsh, in The Washington Post (29 June 1990)

2000s

 * 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.
 * 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


 * There is a sort of an unwritten code in Washington, among the underworld and the hustlers and these other guys that I am their friend.
 * Explaining why he was upset at being robbed at gunpoint, as quoted in the Washington Express (4 January 2006), p. 11

2010s

 * We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go. I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.
 * Primary speech (April 3, 2012).


 * The Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the Polacks caught hell. We want Ward 8 to be the model of diversity.
 * May 24, 2012

Quotes about Marion Berry

 * the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford...The guy used crack cocaine, and he did his job. Despite what you think of him and his politics, but he came to work every day. He did his job. The same is true even of Marion Barry. He came to work every day, did his job. In fact, he did his job so well, so the people of D.C. thought, that they voted for him even after he was convicted for using crack. But that’s the majority of crack cocaine users. Just like any other drug, most of the people who use these drugs do so without a problem.
 * Carl Hart, Interview with Democracy Now (2014)