In Memphis, Barry attended Booker T. Washington High School where he was not only an “A” student through most of his high school years, but also a skilled football and basketball player. Barry graduated in 1954. He then entered Le Moyne College, a small historically black commuter college, on scholarship where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He furthered his education at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee earning a master’s degree on a full scholarship. Barry completed three years of the doctoral program in chemistry at the University of Tennessee before abandoning his studies to become immersed in the civil rights movement full-time. Upon becoming the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1965, Barry moved to Washington, DC. He never moved from the nation’s capitol and was subsequently elected Mayor of the District of Columbia xxx four times.

In 1971, Barry was elected to serve on Washington, DC’s first school board. When Congress granted the District of Columbia the right to hold its own local elections, Barry won a seat on the DC City Council in 1974, as the highest vote getter, and was named chairman of the Finance Committee. Under his leadership as chair, he “helped put the city’s finances in order; pushed the executive to present accurate figures and budgets; offered trailblazing property tax legislation; established an equitable income tax system; and cut taxes for senior citizens.” Barry was reelected to the City Council in 1976.

After building a strong coalition of supporters among the disenfranchised, Barry became the city’s second elected Mayor in 1978 and served as Mayor for three terms until 1990. Barry’s administrations balanced the budget, oversaw a downtown construction boom and provided thousands of jobs to District residents. Perhaps Barry’s most memorable legacy to DC residents was his creation of the District Youth’s Employment Act of 1979 guaranteeing a summer job to every young person who residing in the District of Columbia. Today, in 2005, Barry cannot walk the streets or enter an establishment without someone remembering that they got their first job from Marion Barry.

Barry decided not to run for reelection after a misdemeanor drug conviction in 1990. “He served his time in prison and made a triumphant return to Washington”. In 1992, Barry returned to DC politics by winning a seat on the City Council and made history in 1994 by winning a landslide victory returning him to the Mayoral seat.

Barry retired from politics in 1998 and aborted a run for City Council in 2002. However, unable to resist the numerous and consistent pleas from Ward 8 residents to reenter politics, he decided to run for the Ward 8 City Council seat and won with 96% of the vote in November 2004. As Councilmember, Barry is determined to make Ward 8 the best ward in the city.

Barry has one son, Marion Christopher Barry, 24 years of age who resides in the District of Columbia.