Walter Washington

Walter Edward Washington, (April 15, 1915 – October 27, 2003) was an American politician, the first home-rule mayor of the District of Columbia. He was also the last presidentially appointed executive of Washington, D.C., and the only person to serve as Mayor-Commissioner of the city.

Early life and family

Washington, the great-grandson of an American slave, was born in Dawson, Georgia and raised in Jamestown, New York. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Howard University and his law degree from Howard University School of Law. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

After graduating from Howard in 1948, Washington was hired as a supervisor for D.C.'s Alley Dwelling Authority. He worked for the authority until a 1961 appointment by John F. Kennedy as the Executive Director of the National Capital Housing Authority, the housing department of the then-Federally controlled District of Columbia. In 1966 he took the same position in the administration of New York City mayor John Lindsay.^[1]

His first wife, Bennetta Bullock, died in 1991. By this marriage he had one daughter, sociologist Bennetta Jules-Rosette. In 1994 he married Mary Burke.

Mayor of the District of Columbia

1967-74: Mayor-Commissioner

Between 1967 and 1974, Washington had been appointed Mayor-Commissioner by Presidents Lyndon Johnson (1967–1972)^[2] and Richard Nixon (1972–1974), during the period before home rule became effective in the District.^[3] (He actually was offered the appointment in 1966, but declined because Johnson would not give him authority over the police and fire departments.) Washington was one of three black men chosen to become mayors of major American cities in 1967. Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana and Carl Stokes of Cleveland were both elected to their posts in that year, while Washington was appointed.

Washington led a city that was torn by racial divisions, both locally and congressionally. When he sent his first budget to Congress in late 1967, Representative John L. McMillan, chair of the House Committee on the District of Columbia, responded by having a truckload of watermelons delivered to Washington's office.^[4] Soon afterward, he was faced with the riots in the District that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Although he was reportedly urged by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to shoot the rioters, he refused. He told the Washington Post later, "I walked by myself through the city and urged angry young people to go home. I asked them to help the people who had been burned out."

1975-79: Elected Mayor

Congress had enacted the District of Columbia Self-Rule and Governmental Reorganization Act on December 24, 1973, providing for an elected mayor and city council for the District. Home rule became effective with the first mayor and council on January 2, 1975. Anticipating that new law, Washington began a vigorous campaign in early 1974 for popular election against six local challengers. The Democratic primary race eventually settled into a two-way contest between Washington and future Army Secretary Clifford Alexander, with Washington ultimately winning a tight race by 4,000 votes. In the November general election, he was selected by a large majority, and when home rule came into effect the following January 2, Washington was sworn in as the first popularly elected mayor by Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Although personally beloved by his constituents, who nicknamed him "Uncle Walter," Washington slowly found himself overcome by the problems of managing a newly autonomous, and therefore largely experimental, city government. The Washington Post opined that he lacked "command presence," and D.C. Council Chair Sterling Tucker suggested that the problems in the city were because of Washington's inability as a manager of city services. Council Member Marion S. Barry, Jr. accused him of ""bumbling and bungling in an inefficiently run city government."^[5]

The Washington Monthly noted that Washington's "gentle ways did not move the city's bureaucracy. Neither did it satisfy the black voters' yearning to see the city run by blacks for blacks. Walter Washington was black, but many blacks were suspicious that he was still too tied to the mostly white power structure that had run the city when he was a commissioner."^[5]

In the 1978 Democratic mayoral primary between Washington, Tucker, and Barry, Washington finished third. He left office on January 2, 1979, when the victorious Barry was sworn in. Upon his departure from office, Washington announced that city had posted a $41 million budget surplus, based on the Federal government's cash-on-hand financial system; however, when Barry shifted city finances to the more common accrual system, he announced that Washington had actually left a $284 million debt. However, there is no truth to Barry's claim.^[6]

Later life

After ending his term as mayor, Washington joined the New York-based law firm of Burns, Jackson, Miller & Summit, becoming a partner there and opening the firm's Washington, D.C. office. He went into semi-retirement in the mid 1990s, finally taking full retirement at the end of the decade by which time he was in his early eighties.

Washington remained a beloved public figure in the District and was much sought after for his political advice. In 2002 he endorsed Anthony A. Williams for a second term as mayor despite a petitioning scandal that had made Williams a write-in candidate. Washington's endorsement was still of sufficient weight that it was carried in all local news outlets.

Washington died on October 27, 2003, at Howard University Hospital. Hundreds of mourners came to see him lying in state at the John A. Wilson Building, then attended his funeral at Washington National Cathedral. 13½ Street, the short alley running alongside the Wilson Building, was designated Walter E. Washington Way in his honor; additionally, a new housing development in D.C.'s Ward 8 was named the Walter E. Washington Estates.

In 2006, the Council of the District of Columbia approved legislation renaming the Washington Convention Center in Washington's honor. The building, at 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, is now known as the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

References

External links

• Walter Washington's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project