Washington was elected by D.C. residents in 1975 following seven years as the District’s presidentially appointed mayor-commissioner. The 1948 Howard University Law School graduate, a tireless advocate for D.C. rights, was key to the development of the Home Rule structure of government the city knows today. Washington died in 2003.
Barry defeated Washington in 1978 and went on to serve as mayor through 1991 and then again from 1995 to 1999, earning him the nickname “Mayor for Life.” A product of the Deep South and a civil rights activist, Barry first moved to D.C. in 1965 to open a chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His election brought hope, but his later years in office were marred by rising crime, failing finances, corruption scandals and his arrest on drug charges. He currently represents Ward 8 on the D.C. Council.
Pratt, ex-wife of D.C. Councilman Arrington Dixon, was elected mayor in 1990 by promising to clean house and reduce the size of government. She was a champion of D.C. voting rights, but her tenure was defined by financial failings, including the infamous “fifth quarter” that her administration invented to create an artificial surplus in 1993.
Williams, the District’s chief financial officer during the second Barry administration, was essentially drafted as a mayoral candidate by the upscale Hillcrest community in Ward 7. During his two terms, Williams emphasized economic development, cleaning up some of the most dysfunctional government agencies, and wresting D.C.’s finances from federal control. An intellectual and a world traveler, the Yale-educated Williams — who was advised at campaign time by Barack Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod — was often accused of ignoring the redevelopment of black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River in favor of big money projects near downtown, such as the Washington Nationals ballpark. He vehemently disagreed.
