Marion Barry :: essays research papers fc

Marion Barry, good mayor but bad man. Marion Barry former Mayor of the United States capital. Most known in America for his "Bitch set me up", video taped, Ramada Inn arrest. Charged with possession of a controlled substance, he was still reelected in 1994. This proving Mayor Barry was respected by many Washington citizens and a good Mayor. Marion Barry was possibly a great man with great intentions but weaknesses to sex, drugs, racism and pressures of the position of taking care of a city. Marion Barry born in Mississippi 1936. Raised in a poor family with a yearly income of $250, Marion grew a hatred for the white ruled society around him. Wanting so much more than what he had Marion always struggled to earn as much money as he could. Marion had many jobs as a teenager and teachers often understood he was a very hardworking individual. Barry always stayed out of crime devoting himself to hard work at school and work. (Agronsky 79-85) Upon graduating from high school the same year of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court case, Marion would be the first Barry to attend college (Agronsky 87). Growing up in the desegregation period of America shaped the racially focused person Marion Barry became. Marion Barry attended LeMoyne College in South-Memphis were he majored in Chemistry. Teachers and Students alike agree he studied Chemistry to be different from the rest of black students attending LeMoyne (Agronsky 87). Marion claims to have had very different values than others brought up in the same area as he and he was always an individual (Agronsky 88). Unlike many black students in the fifties Marion was very driven by a struggle for civil rights and racial equality. When LeMoyne trustee Walter Chandler made several anti-integration statements Marion took his first action against racism. He wrote a letter to the school newspaper demanding Chandler's resignation. The letter was eventuall y reprinted in several Memphis newspapers. Upon reading the letter the NAACP executive Roy Akins stepped in and Prendergast 2 heralded Marion as "one of the most righteous young men in Memphis!" (Agronsky 91). Even though the college was not very happy about Barry's remarks, the students and people of Memphis regarded him as a hero and a hope in the new civil rights movement "sweeping the south" (Agronsky 93). (Agronsky 90-93) While getting his Master's Degree in Chemistry at Fisk University in Nashville, Marion Barry would continue the struggle for integration.