Walter Edward Washington - Jamestown, New York
Posted by: 
Szuchie
N 42° 06.292 W 079° 14.724
17T E 645075 N 4662909
A marker detailing one of Jamestown's historically significant sons!
Waymark Code: WM366N
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/17/2008
Views: 17
This marker states:
Walter Edward Washington 1915-2003
Born in Dawson, GA; raised in this neighborhood; graduated JHS 1933,
Howard University (Law Degree) 1948,
Directory, National Capital Housing Authority 1961-1966,
Mayor, Washington D.C. 1967-1978
Placed by the State of New York and the Jamestown Historical Marker Committee 2004
According to Wikipedia:
Walter Edward Washington, (April 15, 1915 – October 27, 2003) was an American politician, the first Home-Rule mayor of the District of Columbia. He was also the last appointed President of the Board of Commissioners of Washington, D.C.
Washington, the great-grandson of a slave, was born in Dawson, Georgia and raised in Jamestown, New York. He graduated with a bachelor's degree and, later, received his law degree from Howard University in the District. His first wife, Benetta, died in 1991. In 1994 he married Mary Burke. He had a daughter, Benetta Washington, with his first wife. He was also a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
After graduating from Howard in 1948, Washington was hired as a supervisor for D.C.'s Alley Dwelling Authority. He worked for the authority until a 1961 appointment by John F. Kennedy as the Executive Director of the National Capital Housing Authority, the housing department of the then-Federally controlled District of Columbia. In 1966 he took the same position in the administration of New York City mayor John Lindsay.
Between 1967 and 1974, Washington had been appointed Mayor-Commissioner by Presidents Lyndon Johnson (1967–1972) and Richard Nixon (1972–1974), during the period before home rule became effective in the District. (He actually was offered the appointment in 1966, but declined because Johnson would not give him authority over the police and fire departments.) Washington was one of three black men chosen to become mayors of major American cities in 1967.