Phoenix City Manager Jeff Barton (Photo via City of Phoenix)
By Jen Fifield | Arizona Republic
By the time Jeff Barton got to Morehouse College, many of his friends had dropped out of school, went to jail or were killed.
Growing up in public housing in a poor Pennsylvania neighborhood, he said it was his smarts and the support of his grandmother who raised him and others that put him on a different path.
Law school was next.
Then, Barton’s brother got into trouble back home. He said he wanted to help, but he knew he couldn’t do that and law school. He moved back to Pennsylvania and enrolled in Shippensburg University to pursue a master’s degree instead.
