Washington, D.C., Councilman Marion Barry remains one of the nation’s most recognizable black politicians. The former District of Columbia mayor won his second term to the council seat for the 8th Ward, the poorest ward in the city, on the same day Barack Obama won the general election. Barry is one of thousands of civil rights alums to hoist the president-elect up on their shoulders, for him to peer over the horizon and into the Oval Office. On the eve of the historic inauguration, Barry shared his thoughts and feelings about the incoming 44th president of the United States. –terry shropshire
What does the Barack Obama presidency mean to you, both personally and politically?
I came out of the Civil Rights Movement. I spent a lot of my years in the backwoods [and on] the back roads of Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia, trying to get black people to register to vote. And now Mississippi has the largest percentage of black elected officials anywhere in the country. So I think [those are] the shoulders that Barack is standing on, the people of Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia. They worked hard, they shed blood, they got killed, [and] they got jailed — Dr. King and John Lewis, myself, a lot of us. That’s whose shoulders he stands on.
What are some of the things you plan on working with the Obama administration on?
Number one on our list is representation in the Congress. You know, there are 550,000 of us [who] don’t have a vote in the Congress, don’t have a senator or congress[person], and we deserve to have fair representation — two senators and one or two congress[persons]. And Barack supports us.
What can we do as a people to help President-elect Obama help us?
We can be supportive. … When [Obama] comes into the community, be there to show our support and do what we can do.
