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Remembering Marion Barry

District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry waves a fist as he arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday, June 28, 1990 for his trial on drug and perjury charges. (Dennis Cook/AP)
District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry waves a fist as he arrives at U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday, June 28, 1990 for his trial on drug and perjury charges. (Dennis Cook/AP)

Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., died early yesterday morning. For more than 40 years, Barry was one of the most powerful and controversial figures in the nation’s capitol.

The four-term mayor and longtime council member was part of the generation of civil rights leaders voted onto the district’s first locally-elected government in the 1970s. From the Here & Now Contributors Network, WAMU’s Jacob Fenston has this remembrance.

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