This is an interesting story from the 1980s. Mayor for life, and general embarrassment to the city of Washington, Marion Barry, proposed in 1985 to rename a portion of Massachusetts Ave. in front of the South African embassy after the jailed anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
We came across this article in The Baltimore Sun from July 3rd, 1985.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mayor Marion Barry, Jr., proposed yesterday that the two blocks in front of the South African Embassy be renamed in honor of anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie.
Mr. Mandela, the banned African National Congress leader, was sentenced in 1964 to life in prison.
-ad 199-“For more than 20 years the Mandelas have been the subjects of oppression that has denied the basic rights that many of us take for granted,” Mayor Barry said in a statement. “We cannot sit idly by while such oppression continues.”
Mayor Barry said the renaming of the two blocks of Massachusetts avenue “will send a clear message to the world that those of us who live in the nation’s capital fully fupport the effort to free Nelson and Winnie Mandela and all black South Africans.”
