Editing Walter Washington (section)

==Mayor of the District of Columbia==
[[File:WEWashington-Nixon.gif|thumb|200px|Walter Washington shakes hands with Pres. Richard Nixon after being sworn in as mayor-commissioner in 1973.]]

===1967-1975: Mayor-Commissioner===
In 1967, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Lyndon Johnson]] used his reorganization power under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 to replace the three-commissioner government that had run the capital since 1871 under congressional supervision. Johnson implemented a more modern government headed by a single commissioner, assistant commissioner, and a nine-member city council, all appointed by the president. Johnson appointed Washington Commissioner, which by this time had been informally retitled as "Mayor-Commissioner."<ref>{{cite news |title=LBJ Names Negro Washington 'Mayor' |agency=United Press International |date=September 7, 1967 |work=St. Petersburg Times, via Google News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=92pQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kloDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7288,3642690&dq=walter-washington&hl=en }}</ref> (Power brokers such as [[Katharine Graham]], publisher of the ''Washington Post,'' had supported white lawyer [[Edward Bennett Williams]].<ref>[https://nymag.com/frank-rich/ Frank Rich], ''New York Magazine''</ref>) Washington was the first African-American mayor of a major American city, and one of three blacks in 1967 chosen to lead major cities. [[Richard Hatcher]] of [[Gary, Indiana]], and [[Carl Stokes]] of [[Cleveland]] were elected that year.

Washington inherited a city that was torn by racial divisions, and also had to deal with conservative congressional hostility following passage of major civil rights legislation. When he sent his first budget to Congress in late 1967, Democratic [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[John L. McMillan]], chair of the [[United States House Committee on the District of Columbia|House Committee on the District of Columbia]], responded by having [[watermelon stereotype|a truckload of watermelons]] delivered to Washington's office.<ref name=dreamcity>Harry S. Jaffe and Tom Sherwood. ''Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington D.C.'' Simon & Schuster, 1994, p.62</ref>

In April 1968, Washington faced riots following the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]]  Although reportedly urged by [[FBI]] director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] to shoot rioters, Washington refused. He later told ''[[The Washington Post]]'' in 1999, "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." Only one person refused to listen to him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG5iMTeHUqY&index=9&list=PLCwE4GdJdVRIYilSyoRA7jebsmyQK00bf|title = Walter Washington:Controlling the DC Riots|website = [[YouTube]]| date=4 February 2010 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Obituaries / Walter E. Washington, 88, first D.C. mayor in 104 years|url=http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2003/10/28/walter_e_washington_88_first_dc_mayor_in_104_years/|access-date=2021-05-15|website=archive.boston.com|language=en}}</ref> His actions are credited with helping prevent large-scale riots in the area.<ref name=":1" />

Republican President [[Richard Nixon]] retained Washington after being elected as president in 1968.<ref>{{cite news |title=Home Rule for D.C. Due House Test |agency=United Press International |first=Albert |last=Swanson |work=Baltimore Afro-American, via Google News |date=October 2, 1973 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=koclAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KvUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2557,2637046&dq=walter-washington+nixon&hl=en }}</ref>

In 1971,<ref>{{Cite web|title=How the ACLU Won the Largest Mass Acquittal in American History|url=https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/rights-protesters/how-aclu-won-largest-mass-acquittal-american-history|access-date=2021-05-15|website=American Civil Liberties Union|date=4 December 2019 |language=en}}</ref> the [[United States Department of Justice]] prohibited an anti-Vietnam demonstration on [[Pennsylvania Avenue]]. There were public concerns that violence would spark. Washington visited the [[White House]], and he requested that President Nixon issue permits for the demonstration. The request was honored, and the demonstration commenced with 250,000 marchers.<ref name=":1" />

===1975-1979: Elected Mayor===
Congress enacted the District of Columbia Self-Rule and Governmental Reorganization Act on December 24, 1973, providing for an elected mayor and [[Council of the District of Columbia|city council]].  In early 1974, Washington began a vigorous campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the mayoral election. As Washington was heavily Democratic and (at the time) majority black, it was taken for granted that whoever won the Democratic primary would become the city's first popularly-elected mayor since 1871. 

Washington faced six challengers in the Democratic primary. However, the primary eventually became a two-way contest between Washington and [[Clifford Alexander]], future [[U.S. Secretary of the Army|Army Secretary]]. Washington won the tight race by 4,000 votes. As expected, he won the November general election with a large majority. Home rule took effect when Washington and the newly elected council–the city's first popularly-elected government in over a century–were sworn into office January 2, 1975. Washington was sworn in by [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court|Supreme Court Justice]] [[Thurgood Marshall]].

Although personally beloved by residents, some who nicknamed him "Uncle Walter," Washington slowly found himself overcome by the problems of managing what was the equivalent of a combination state and city government. The ''Washington Post'' opined that he lacked "command presence."  Council chair [[Sterling Tucker]], who wanted to be Mayor, suggested that the problems in the city were because of Washington's inability to manage city services. Council Member [[Marion Barry]], another rival, accused him of "bumbling and bungling in an inefficiently run city government."<ref name=WaMo /> Washington was also constrained by the fact that then as now, the Constitution vested Congress with ultimate authority over the District. Congress thus retained veto power over acts passed by the council, and many matters were subject to council approval.

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."<ref name=WaMo>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_v18/ai_4330756/pg_3/ Chuck Stone. "A dream deferred; a black mayor betrays the faith," ''Washington Monthly'', July–August 1986.</ref> During his administration he started many new initiatives, for example, the [[Office of Latino Affairs of the District of Columbia]].

In the 1978 Democratic mayoral primary, Washington finished third behind Barry and Tucker. He left office on January 2, 1979. Upon his departure from office, he announced that the city had posted a $41 million budget surplus, based on the [[United States federal government|Federal government's]] cash accounting system. When Barry took office, he shifted city finances to the more common accrual system, and he announced that under this system, the city actually had a $284 million deficit.<ref name=barras>{{cite book |title=The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in a New Age of Black Leaders |last=Barras |first=Jonetta Rose |year=1998 |publisher=Bancroft Press |isbn=0-9631246-6-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lastofblackemper00barr }}</ref>