January 19: On This Day in World History … briefly
Barry was charged with three felony counts of perjury, ten counts of drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine, even though the cocaine belonged to the government informant.
1990: Washington mayor stung in crack bust
Marion Barry came to national prominence as mayor, 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.
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’.
Using an attractive black actress as bait, FBI agents caught Washington’s mayor Marion Barry red-handed as he smoked a cocaine-laced cigarette in a hotel room. Long suspected of illegal drug consumption, the ‘sting’ operation came as Barry accepted a ‘crack’ cigarette from the police informer while hidden video cameras recorded the event. Seconds later, one of America’s best-known black leaders was under arrest.
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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