For better or worse, the defining moment of Marion Barry’s storied political career was an FBI bust that revealed the D.C. mayor smoking crack in a hotel room in 1990.
“Bitch set me up,” Barry said of the woman who was a part of the sting.
Barry, who also was a tireless supporter for generations of black people, died Sunday.
He was 78.
The FBI sting cost Barry six months in prison but it didn’t end his political career. The son of a sharecropper was elected to a fourth term as mayor in 1994 and then served three terms on the D.C. Council from 2004-15.
His civil rights achievements were overshadowed by the surveillance video showing him smoking crack.
Click here to see the video.
