iately, capitalized on his popularity in the city. In 1971, he ran for and won election to the school board. Four years later, Barry also successfully won an at-large seat on the City Council. As WashingtonPost.Com observed in a retrospect, “Barry was a radically new kind of politician. Raised in poverty, he built a political base from Anacostia rather than through the traditional black power brokers on 16th Street’s Gold Coast. He embodied black political aspirations.”Barry was re-elected to the City Council in 1976, and ran for Mayor in 1978. Given the District’s political demographics, the Democratic Primary Election was the true political battle in the Mayoral race. Whoever won the nomination would surely win the General Election in November. Sterling Tucker was not only Barry’s main foe during the Primary, but served as Chairman of the City Council that Barry served on. Although in later years, the Editorial Page of The Washington Post would become one of Barry’s biggest critics, he did win the city’s largest and most powerful endorsement in 1978. Highlights of the August 30, 1978 endorsement include: “What Mr. Barry seems to value, and to be offering, in other words, is precisely what we think the people of this city need, and ought to be looking for. We have in mind particular qualities of leadership – energy, nerve, initiative, imagination, toughness of mind, an active concern for people in distress, command presence if you will – that have been conspicuously absent from the present administration and also seem to be missing from Mr. Tucker.”Before there can be further analysis of Barry’s success in District politics; despite an extremely negative public opinion on a national level; it is essential to understand the power of the office Barry sought for two decades. Although Washington, DC is among the largest twenty-five cities in the United Stat...
