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unanimous high court decision changing all America. General Eisenhower surprised moderates and conservatives by welcoming the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's 40th annual convention to "D.C." and by sending the National Guard and army troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to carry out court orders integrating Central High School. Little did Washingtonians suspect that one of the famed "Little Rock Nine" Negro school children admitted to the all white school then would return to the Capital a generation later as Assistant Secretary of Labor, a promoter of equal employment and a civil rights champion in his own right.

Despite a deliberate, concentrated effort to delay the court ordered "all deliberate speed" of District school desegregation by the southern "Dixie" dominated Congressional District Committee which governed the Capital under the old "colonial" from of Commission government the city's separate "colored" schools continued to produce superior Faculty, students and graduates (because of the high concentration of Negro college parents and skilled workers) who flocked here and to the other major urban areas and eventually took over important posts in the local government. In fact, the public schools set the pace for Changing Washington as the residents chose their first elected school board and finally its first elected mayor, appropriately, named Walter Washington (from Jamestown, New York) after Mr. Washington served seven years (1967-74) effectively as the appointed District Commissioner-Mayor at the request of President Lyndon Johnson, the converted southern who succeeded the 1920s "Camelot", President John F. Kennedy, following his tragic assassination on Thanksgiving eve in 1961. 

The transition from such appointed school board members as Atty. Wesley Williams, Col. West A. Hamilton and Dr. Margaret Butcher to elected officials Betty Benjamin, Barbara Simmons and Marion Barry helped prepare the path for Home Rule. It was migrant Barry, the former leader of the "Militant" Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee" during the civil rights Movement, who immeasurably helped in the push for elected government as organizer of the "Free D.C." movement while Commissioner Mayor Walter Washington's capable leadership demonstrated the capacity of black officials who gradually took over the Capital government from the Congress and the White House during the next 10 years, with cooperation of the political and white economic establishment (Board of Trade which saw the handwriting on the wall and soon elected black businesswoman Flaxie Pinkett as the first black and woman president) Washington was the first balck [[black]] elected mayor of the District of Columbia in 1974 and Marion Barry who succeeded him, along with the slate of excivil right successfully since 1978, wit the possibility of a third term beginning in 1986. Barry is now President of the National Council of Black Mayors, a leaders in the U.S. Conference of Mayors and recently attended the World Conference of Mayors in Africa in Nonrovia, Liberia, earlier in 1985. The black organized D.C. Chamber of Commerce under entrepreneur and fuvt Lincoln new town developer Theodore Hugen pushed on is pruceh. 

"In 1975, Home Rule came to Washington, and some mark the Washington renaissance from that moment" wrote one writer in the dominant Washington Post newspaper. Referring to the tremendous growth and development in the Capital since (black) elected officials took over, the writer added: "No government could have stopped it, but to a degree home rule has been the developer's best friend...In fact, if you want a graphic picture of what home rule can mean, come to the 14th Street, It was once the place where a new congressman assigned to the District Committee came to to have his picture taken so he could send a press release home on how he was going to clean up Washington, D.C., No congressman ever laid a glove on the strip, though. The developers are the ones who have the pimps and strippers on the run, proving once again What everyone already knows about Washington: The lust for real estate is greater than the lust for lust...

"And, if anything, Mayor...Barry is a pro-developer as any mayor in the country. Had an appointed mayor been as enamored of brick as the current mayor, Washington's activists would yelled and screemed [[screamed]]. The same people who came out and battled the freeways would have taken on the developers. But because Barry is elected, and black, and comes up fromt he [[from the]] civil rights movement, few seem to care that he is, at least when it comes to development, indistinguishable from either the late Richard Daley of Chicago, or...the late Nelson Rockefeller (governor of New York). Marion Barry loves development..."

But Mayor Barry sums up his effective leadership by declaring "I love Washington and I love the people in Washington, allthe [[all the]] people all the time.

Other citizens express their attitude toward home rule and the changes in the Capital in the following statements: 

Johnnie Johnson; "It is the first time residents have had the opportunity to vote for government officials and have extensive housing, minority contracting, summer youth employment, residential care and other types of programs we didn't have before home rule. (The programs) were limited not like what we have today..."

Wilhelmina Marshall; "Home rule has made a significant impact on the lives of District citizens. I've seen changes in the government under home rule, especially since I have witnessed the budget process before and after home rule> I think this is a great credit to the Mayor (Barry) who has developed programs to meet the needs of all citizens, from preschoolers to elderly citizens". 

Stephen G. Callas; "Since 1975, when the elected major and council took over, D.C. voters who have direct political expression and power. That provided citizens with local self-determination and gave them a real voice in helping to shape their destiny. There have been other major gains, but to me the direct vote was the preeminent achievement. 

Despite the above listed successes, the Capital's progressive citizens are still seeking full empowerment to provide full employment, peace and prosperity for all of their familers by demanding complete representation with two elected members in the House of Representative and two full members in the United State Senate like other states of comparable size.

Reverend Walter E. Fauntroy, the popular first elected member of congress, is among those active in the struggle for statehood and complete self determination as the "Capital City" rightfully seeks its place among the great cities of the world. 

However, some citizens are not unmindful of what could happen since the District once had limited "home rule" before from 1812-1874 when Congress voted to take away the Capital's board of Alderman and Mayor because of budget difficulties. As the "district" continues its quest for greatness, some hometowners and "home-rulers" realize that those who ignore their history are bound to repeat it...

[[2 images with caption]]
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS leaders, Reps. Louis Strokes (D-Cleveland); William H. Gray III (D-Philadelphia) and Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles) discuss plans for elected more black members of U.S. Congress, passing 1984 Civil Rights legislation and improving American relations with African nations during CBC Foundation's 14th annual legislative weekend in Washington. Foundation netted over a million dollars in contributions as thousands attended free workshops and forums on capitol hill and paid concerts, fashion shows, luncheons, receptions and annual awards dinner at various affairs throughout capital area.