His family moved North in the Great Migration, and Washington was raised in Jamestown, New York, attending public schools.

[citation needed] His wife Bennetta Washington became a director of the Women's Job Corps, and First Lady of the District of Columbia when he was mayor.

In 1966 Washington moved to New York City to head the much larger Housing Authority there in the administration of Mayor John Lindsay.

"[5] (Power brokers such as Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, had supported white lawyer Edward Bennett Williams.

Washington inherited a city that was torn by racial divisions, and also had to deal with conservative congressional hostility following passage of major civil rights legislation.

When he sent his first budget to Congress in late 1967, Democratic Representative John L. McMillan, chair of the House Committee on the District of Columbia, responded by having a truckload of watermelons delivered to Washington's office.

[1] Congress enacted the District of Columbia Self-Rule and Governmental Reorganization Act on December 24, 1973, providing for an elected mayor and city council.

However, the primary eventually became a two-way contest between Washington and Clifford Alexander, future Army Secretary.

Home rule took effect when Washington and the newly elected council–the city's first popularly-elected government in over a century–were sworn into office January 2, 1975.

Although personally beloved by residents, some who nicknamed him "Uncle Walter," Washington slowly found himself overcome by the problems of managing what was the equivalent of a combination state and city government.

Council Member Marion Barry, another rival, accused him of "bumbling and bungling in an inefficiently run city government.

Upon his departure from office, he announced that the city had posted a $41 million budget surplus, based on the Federal government's cash accounting system.

[12] After ending his term as mayor, Washington joined the New York-based law firm of Burns, Jackson, Miller & Summit, becoming a partner.

Hundreds of mourners came to see him lying in state at the John A. Wilson Building (City Hall), and also attended his funeral at Washington National Cathedral.