Committee will vet potential Marion Barry memorials, Gray says

Marion Barry waves to a cheering crowd as he steps onstage to discuss his autobiography, “Mayor for Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry, Jr.” during an event hosted by the Washington Informer at the Old Congress Heights School in S.E. Washington. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

It’s been just weeks since Marion Barry died and days since he was laid to rest, but the discussion of what might be a suitable memorial to the “Mayor for Life” is only beginning.

One online petition has called for naming H Street and Benning Road after Barry. Mayor-elect Muriel E. Bowser said at Barry’s memorial service that she would seek to rename the city’s summer jobs program after him. And many others have floated enduring tributes ranging from parks to streets to city buildings.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said Wednesday that the task is considerable enough that he plans to appoint a panel in his remaining weeks as mayor to sort through the various proposals.

“I’ve had any number of recommendations to come to me just in the days since Mayor Barry has passed away,” he said. “I’m going to ask a committee of people to work on this to come up with some principles, ideas and make some suggestions on what will be the fitting tribute to him. Otherwise we’ll be all over the place with this.”

The panel, he said, will include members “who care about … the preservation of the legacy of Marion Barry and have a vision for that.”

But before the committee gets to work, Gray said, he plans to offer a tribute of his own: Issuing an executive order renaming the Mayor’s Youth Leadership Institute after Barry, who founded the program in 1979. It gathers hundreds of high-school-age city youth for development programs, including a “youth government.”

“We’re going to rename that the Mayor Marion Barry Leadership Institute,” he said.