D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-large) is part of an effort to archive the historic 1978 Washington D.C. mayoral election. The late Marion Barry emerged as the winner and changed the political landscape of the city.

Marion Barry, revered as D.C.’s mayor for life, served four terms as the District’s mayor. (Courtesy Photo)

On June 5, Bonds announced the online oral history archive of Marion Barry’s 1978 Campaign for Mayor at the John A. Wilson Building with D.C. Council members Trayon White (D-Ward 8) and Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), and 40 of Barry’s closest friends and colleagues. The archive, which consists of interviews with campaign workers and members of the press who covered the election, is housed at George Washington University’s Gelman Library.

“This was a historic moment for the city and for the country,” Kwame Holman, Barry’s friend, said in a statement. “During his campaign for mayor, Barry won the election with the support of gays and lesbians, low-income people and Whites. His election was about the evolution of Home Rule in the District of Columbia.”

Bonds agreed with the special nature of the campaign. “This was definitely something different,” she said in a statement. “The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club mailed out 93,000 pieces on behalf of Marion. Barry was of the people.”

The creation of the archive was spearheaded by Barry supporters such as Bonds, Julius Hobson Jr., Betty King, Diane Lewis, Gladys Mack, Richard Maulsby and Thornell Page, all political activists in the District at that time. Journalists Holman and Tom Sherwood also assisted with the project.

Barry served on the District of Columbia Board of Education from 1972-1974 and on the D.C. Council as an at-large member from 1975-1979. In 1978, Barry challenged incumbent Mayor Walter Washington for re-election. D.C. Council Chairman Sterling Tucker was in the race also.

On Sept. 12, 1978, Barry beat Tucker by 1,400 votes and won the general election in November. Betty King, active in the Barry 1978 effort and a supporter of the online archive, said the campaign beat the odds of the so-called political experts.

“The summer of 1978 is one I will never forget,” King said in a statement. King served as the head of Barry’s Office of Board and Commissions during his first two terms and as a deputy chief of staff and ombudsman during his fourth term. “No one thought we would win the election but we worked our tails off. For me, it was a peak experience,” she said.

Lewis said the 1978 election wasn’t just about Barry becoming mayor. “Barry’s election started the process of the District becoming an independent jurisdiction of its own and not an entity of the federal government,” she said, noting that it was under Barry that the District’s budget was consolidated instead of being a patchwork ruled by different federal agencies.

Ethel Delaney Lee is a longtime political activist in the District. Though she hasn’t been interviewed for the archive, she is looking forward to it.

“I was there with Barry at the very beginning, in 1978,” Lee told the AFRO. “I remember on July 4 of that year when Bonds and I worked to get the petitions ready for Barry to run. I played a key role in Barry’s effort in Precinct 62, which was the highest voting precinct in the city in terms of percentage.”

Lee said she made 500 phone calls on behalf of Barry in 1978, noting that many of her neighbors didn’t like him.

Bonds said that the Barry project should be the beginning of a process where District residents tell their stories. “I join those who created the archive in encouraging present and former elected officials of the D.C. government to undertake similar oral history projects,” the council member said. “Too many of our friends and colleagues have already passed away. The recollections of others who played a role in the critical events in the evolution of Home Rule and the political history of the District of Columbia must not be lost.”

Hobson told the AFRO why George Washington University was chosen to house the online archive instead of Howard University or the University of the District of Columbia. “We reached out and searched around for this,” he said. “We decided on the best vehicle to make this happen quickly.”

Jennifer King is the manuscript librarian for the Special Collection Research Center at the library. “We were approached in 2014 to do this and it has been a joy to work with,” Jennifer King said in a statement. King demonstrated how to access the access the video interviews of 33 people who worked on the campaign at go.gwu/Marionbarryproject.