Never one to shy away from controversy, while supporting Mayor Vince Gray, Marion Barry called out White voters for being close-minded.

Barry, 78 years old and visibly struggling, endorsed Gray at a press conference in his ward, southeast D.C., an event clearly designed to shore up Black votes. In 2010, Gray successfully primaried Mayor Adrian Fenty by romping with Black voters. Gray won 82 percent in Barry's Ward 8, for a margin of 8,453 votes. He did even better in Ward 7, also east of the Anacostia, racking up nearly 12,000 votes over Fenty. Gray's citywide margin: 13,124 votes.

And so Barry, who recently got out of the hospital, showed up and turned the subtext into text. "I think it's up to White people to be more open-minded," he said, "and Blacks are more open-minded than they are. Simple as that."