As HBO considers making a movie about Marion Barry with Eddie Murphy in the title role, the real Barry is doing something that comes naturally: running for re-election in the nation’s capital.
Barry, the former four-term District of Columbia mayor whose legacy will always be tainted by his 1990 arrest after being caught on video smoking crack cocaine, now plays the role of elder statesman on the D.C. Council, where he represents a poor, predominantly black ward.
At 75, Barry walks stiffly and slowly, having survived prostate cancer, a kidney transplant and a gunshot wound when Hanafi Muslims attacked city hall in 1977. But the man once dubbed the city’s “Mayor for Life” says he has more influence than in more than a decade and fully intends to seek a third straight council term this year, even if the prospect makes some wince.
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