January 19: On This Day in World History … briefly
On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with a former girlfriend, Hazel Diane ‘Rasheeda’ Moore, in a sting operation at the Vista International Hotel by the FBI and DC police for crack cocaine use and possession.
1990: Washington mayor stung in crack bust
Marion Shepilov Barry was an American politician who served as the second mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, representing as an at-large member from 1975 to 1979 and in Ward 8 from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2005 to 2014. In the 1960s he was involved in the civil rights movement, first as a member of the Nashville Student Movement and then serving as the first chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Barry came to national prominence as mayor of the national capital, the first prominent civil rights activist to become chief executive of a major American city. He gave the presidential nomination speech for Jesse Jackson at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. His celebrity was transformed into international notoriety in January 1990, when he was videotaped during a sting operation smoking crack cocaine and was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials on drug charges. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry from seeking re-election, and he served six months in a federal prison. After his release, he was elected to the Council of the District of Columbia in 1992. He was elected again as mayor in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.
Using an attractive black actress as bait, the FBI caught mayor Barry red-handed as he smoked a cocaine-laced cigarette in a hotel room. The ‘sting’ operation came from Barry, long suspected of illegal drug consumption, accepted a ‘crack’ cigarette from the police informer while hidden FBI video cameras recorded the event. Seconds later, one of America’s best-known black leaders was under arrest. Despite his history of political and legal controversies, Barry was a popular and influential figure in Washington DC. The alternative weekly Washington City Paper nicknamed him ‘Mayor for life’, a designation that remained long after Barry left the mayoralty. The Washington Post once stated that ‘to understand the District of Columbia, one must understand Marion Barry’. Barry died at United Medical Center in Washington, DC, on November 23, 2014, from cardiac arrest, aged 78. Following three days of memorial observances, he was buried on December 6 at Washington’s Congressional Cemetery.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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