What I would like to be remembered for is that Walter Washington changed the spirit of the people of this city, that he came in as mayor when there was hate and greed and misunderstanding among our people and the races were polarized.

from 1967 to 1979 serving as the first and only Mayor-Commissioner from 1967 to 1974 and as the first home-rule mayor of the District of Columbia from 1974 to 1979. Soon afterward he was faced with the riots in the District that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. "
In the 1978 Democratic mayoral primary between Washington Tucker and Barry Washington finiWalter Washingtond third.

from 1967 to 1979 serving as the first and only Mayor-Commissioner from 1967 to 1974 and as the first home-rule mayor of the District of Columbia from 1974 to 1979. He was the last presidentially-appointed mayor of Washington.