A ‘champion for the last, the lost and the least,’ former DC Mayor Marion Barry honored with street renaming – WTOP News

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

WTOP/Dick Uliano

A jubilant crowd — many of them Ward 8 residents and some of Marion Barry’s greatest admirers — gathered at a usually busy intersection in the community he loved, to witness the District’s latest honor for its former mayor.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city’s former first lady Cora Masters Barry pulled away a covering on a street sign to reveal Good Hope Road’s new name: Marion Barry Avenue.

“I want to acknowledge the people that Marion Barry loved so dearly and fought so hard for and that’s every neighborhood and every person in the great Ward 8. What we were committed to was an agenda for all eight wards … that was Marion’s commitment, too. He would be the first to tell you that he was the champion for the last, the lost and the least. But he would also tell you that he transformed every ward of Washington D.C.,” Bowser said.

With traffic blocked at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, folding chairs and a stage were placed there in the heart of Anacostia for the renaming ceremony in honor of the former Ward 8 council member and mayor. The afternoon was marked by speeches, games and a live band performance.

“He chose to live in Ward 8. He could live anywhere else, but he chose Ward 8 and he loved Ward 8,” said Barbara Jones, a Ward 8 resident who organized the petition nearly two years ago, leading to the street renaming.

Residents said they remember Barry, not for his imperfections, but for the summer jobs program he initiated, and also a nutrition program for new mothers as well as assistance for seniors.

Barry made national headlines in 1991 when he was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of crack cocaine.

Following his release, he reentered politics and won back his Ward 8 council member seat.