By James Wright, Special to the AFRO, jwright@afro.com

The 1990s is remembered by residents of the District of Columbia as a time of change in the city that still had a sense of community, regardless of where one lived.

Talk around the 1990s has risen since WETA released its show, Washington in the 90s, hosted by Channel 4 News anchor Doreen Gentzler. The show was screened for District residents Aug. 1 at the Anacostia Smithsonian Museum in Southeast.

In and out of office, Marion Barry was a dominant figure in the 1990s. (Courtesy Photo)

Ferne Barrow, WETA’s senior director of outreach and community engagement, was the facilitator of the discussion. “A lot of interesting things happened in Washington during the 1990s,” Barrow said to an audience of 55 in the museum’s meeting room. “This show is a reflection of what happened during that decade.”

The late D.C. Mayor and council member Marion Barry was prominent in the show, with footage of his controversial arrest in the Vista Hotel in 1990, his decision not to run for re-election later that year, the trial and time spent incarcerated for his crime, the comeback to politics winning the Ward 8 council seat in 1992, his re-election as mayor in 1994, and his decision not to seek a fifth term as mayor in 1998.

“Marion Barry was the most dominant figure in D.C. at that time,” Barrow said.

Other events such as Sharon Pratt’s rise and fall as mayor, the Mount Pleasant riots, the successful Million Man March in 1995, the Blizzard of 1996, the opening of the then MCI Center in 1997, the Control Board and Anthony Williams as mayor are also discussed during the show.

Debra Paschall attended the airing of “Washington in the 90s” and had some issues with it. “There was no mention of Cathy Hughes when she was running WOL,” Paschall said, referring to Hughes who owned WOL-AM talk radio when it was on H Street N.E. Hughes is presently the founder of Urban One, a Black-oriented media company that has its hands in television and other multi-media platforms. “I used to listen to WOL on a daily basis.”

Chris Stukes was a youngster during the 1990s but remembers it vividly. “I remember when Marion Barry came back from prison and there was a big, big celebration,” Stukes said. “I also remember the Million Man March and there were lots of people on the National Mall.”

Jonathan Hutto Sr. is a community organizer for Empower DC, an organization seeking to make low and working-class District residents more economically and politically viable. Hutto told the AFRO that he liked the show but disagreed with some of its content.

“Overall, I thought it was a decent presentation, but it should have shown more of the activity that was taking place among grassroots activists,” Hutto, who served as president of the Howard University Student Association from 1997-1998, said. “One thing I didn’t like was the way the show portrayed the control board. The control board was portrayed as a good thing and I don’t agree with that.”

In general, audience members said while the District had its challenges; it was a good place to be. People were friendlier and there was a strong sense of pride in being in “Chocolate City.”

“It was a fun time to be in Washington,” Stukes said.