J. Barry Mahool

American politician (1870–1935)

J. Barry Mahool


36th Mayor of Baltimore
In office 1907–1911
Preceded by	E. Clay Timanus
Succeeded by	James H. Preston

Personal details
Born	John Barry Mahool (1870-09-14)September 14, 1870 Phoenix, Maryland, U.S.
Died	July 29, 1935(1935-07-29) (aged 64) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic

John Barry Mahool (September 14, 1870 – July 29, 1935) was the Mayor of Baltimore from 1907 to 1911.

Biography

Mahool was born in Phoenix, Maryland on September 14, 1870.^[1] He became the Democratic nominee for Baltimore mayor in April 1907, defeating opponents John Charles Linthicum and George Stewart Brown. In May 1907, he defeated incumbent Republican mayor E. Clay Timanus.^[2]

In 1910, Mahool signed city ordinance No. 610 prohibiting African-Americans from moving onto blocks where whites were the majority, and vice versa.^[3] Mahool had been an advocate for social justice, championing causes such as woman's suffrage, but the ordinance came in response to an uproar after George W. F. McMechen, an African-American Yale law school graduate, moved into a rich (white) neighborhood. The ordinance was rapidly declared unconstitutional.^[4]

Mahool lost a re-election bid in 1911 in the primary, losing to James H. Preston.^[5]^[6]

Mahool died in Baltimore on July 29, 1935, nine days after suffering a fall in Ocean City, Maryland.^[7]

References

^ Agnus, Felix, ed. (1920). The book of Maryland: Men and Institutions. Baltimore: Maryland Biographical Association. pp. 107, 153. Retrieved December 25, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
^ (May 8, 1907). Baltimore Goes Democratic, The New York Times
^ Baltimore (Md.). The Ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. p. 204.
^ Crenson, Matthew A. Roots: Baltimore's Long March to the Era of Civil Rights, in The City in American Political Development (Dilsworth, Richardson, ed.), pp. 212-13 (2009)
^ J. Barry Mahool (1870-1935), Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series), Retrieved May 8, 2012
^ Coyle, Wilbur F. The Mayors of Baltimore, Baltimore Municipal Journal (1919)
^ "Barry Mahool Dies Suddenly At Hospital". The Baltimore Sun. July 30, 1930. p. 22. Retrieved December 25, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.