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A City in Transition: The District of Columbia, 1967-97
The Washington Post
Thursday, July 31, 1997
1967 -- President Lyndon B. Johnson abolishes the Board of Commissioners that had run the city since 1874. He creates a single executive and a nine-member council, all appointed.
1968 -- First elected school board.
1971 -- First elected non-voting delegate to Congress.
1972 -- Rep. John L. McMillan, the longtime House District Committee chairman, is defeated in a South Carolina primary. For a quarter-century, the Democrat had killed all home rule bills.
1973 -- Home Rule Charter approved by Congress.
1975 -- Walter E. Washington takes over as first elected mayor of Washington.
1978 -- Marion Barry wins the mayor's race with support from white voters.... Also, Congress passes the proposed D.C. Voting Rights Amendment to the Constitution that would give the District two senators and a representative with votes in Congress.
1985 -- The proposed D.C. Voting Rights Amendment, which needed ratification by two-thirds of the states, dies after only 16 of the necessary 38 states approve it.
1990 -- Barry is videotaped smoking crack at the Vista International Hotel. Sharon Pratt Dixon, promising reform, is elected mayor.
1991 -- Barry serves six months in prison on a misdemeanor narcotics charge. In 1992, Barry returns to the city and is elected council member for Ward 8.
1993 -- Renewed budget pressure leads the city to adopt questionable budget and accounting practices, papering over deficits. Flight from the city, which had slowed slightly in the 1980s, accelerates.
1995 -- Congress creates a financial control board, headed by Andrew F. Brimmer, to rein in city spending. Barry, reelected for a fourth term, declares that home rule has become unworkable.
1996 -- Control board takes over operations of D.C. schools.
1997 -- Control board takes over operations of D.C. police.
NOW -- Congress signs off on a financial/management package that would grant the District pension relief, tax breaks and federal funding for prisons in exchange for major dismantlement of the city's home rule structure. The presidentially-appointed financial control board would assume control over major agencies, with Barry stripped of most of his power.
