The Last of the Black Emperors : The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in a New Age of Black Leaders

Journalist Jonetta Rose Barras takes a hard-boiled look at the rise and fall of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, who was reelected after serving time for smoking crack. Barras, in her top- notch reporting, lays bare the racially charged Washington political landscape in which Barry operates, writing, "Some blacks are leery of Barry. Having found their way inside corporate boardrooms and suburban neighborhoods, they temper their praise for him, labeling his race-based politics divisive.... Still, their cultural connections demand that they respect and marvel at Barry...."

Barras chronicles Barry's beginnings, from his '60s student work in Nashville, Tennessee (which is also discussed in broader scope in David Halberstam's The Children), to his ascendance from the D.C. school board to the mayor's office. But Barras also calls into account the effectiveness of Barry's '60s-style political activism and the near-despotic characteristics of his generation's hold on power. "Twenty years from now," she writes, "if today's new black leaders provide for their own timely exits from the political stage--something their predecessors failed to do--they will help realize the dream of civil rights era activists." Barras's book is a sometimes scathing account of Barry's peril and promise that also serves as a cautionary tale for future black leaders. --Eugene Holley Jr.