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Ronald Vernie Dellums (born November 24, 1935), U.S. Democratic Party politician, is the mayor-elect of the City of Oakland, California. He was a U.S. Representative from California from 1971 until 1999. Dellums was the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California. In 2000, he published his memoirs Lying Down With the Lions.
Early life
Dellums was born in Oakland. He attended Oakland Technical High School and McClymonds High School.
He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1954 to 1956. Dellums later received his A.A. degree from the Oakland City College in 1958, his B.A. from the San Francisco State University in 1960, and his M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1962. He became a psychiatric social worker and political activist in the African American community beginning in the 1960s. He also taught at the San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Dellums was a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.
Political career
Dellums has been in politics for over thirty years. He has held positions on the Berkeley city council, in the US House of Representatives, and is the apparent mayor-elect of Oakland, for the term beginning 1 January 2007.
Berkeley city council
Dellums was elected to the Berkeley city council, and served from 1967 to 1970. He also was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970 after being recruited by anti-Vietnam War activists to run against the incumbent, Jeffery Cohelan, a white liberal close to organized labor who had not opposed the war early enough to please local activists. Dellums defeated Cohelan in the Democratic Primary and won the general election, serving without interruption for 27 years.
His politics earned him a place on Richard M. Nixon's Enemies List, where his notation stated Dellums "had extensive EMK-Tunney support in his election bid."
Vietnam war crimes hearings
In January, 1971, just weeks into his first term, Dellums set up a Vietnam war crimes exhibit in an annex to his Congressional office. The exhibit featured four, large posters depicting supposed atrocities committed by American soldiers embellished with red paint. This was followed shortly thereafter by a series of hearings on "war crimes" in Vietnam, which began April 25. Dellums had called for formal investigations into the allegations, but Congress chose not to endorse these proceedings. As such, the hearings were ad hoc and only informational in nature. As a condition of room use, press and camera presence were not permitted, but the proceedings were transcribed. A small number of other anti-Vietnam War congresspeople also took part in the hearings.
The transcripts describe alleged details of U.S. military's conduct in Vietnam. Some tactics were descried as “gruesome”, such as the severing of ears from corpses to verify body count. Others involved the indiscriminate killing of civilians. Soldiers claimed to have ordered artillery strikes on villages which did not appear to have any military presence. Soldiers were claimed to use racist terms such as "gooks," "dinks" and "slant eyes" when referring to the Vietnamese.
Witnesses described that legal, by-the-book instruction was augmented by more questionable training by non-commissioned officers as to how soldiers should conduct themselves. One witness testified about "free-fire zones," areas as large as 80 square miles in which soldiers were free to shoot any Vietnamese they encountered after curfew without first making sure they were hostile. Allegations of exaggeration of body count, torture, murder and general abuse of civilians and the psychology and motivations of soldiers and officers were discussed at length.
Liberation struggles in southern Africa
Historical background
The U.S. had long been a supporter of the South African government, seeing it as a Western ally during the Cold War with regard to its strategic and foreign policy interests, viewing growing Soviet and Cuban military involvement in southern Africa as a threat. As a result, the two nations supported the forces of UNITA, led by the infamously brutal Jonas Savimbi against the Soviet- and Cuban backed MPLA in the Angolan struggle for independence.,, and the CIA recruited mercenaries and funneled intelligence to opposing sides in an effort to thwart Soviet-backed forces.
This playing out of the Cold War standoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in a hot conflict on African soil, with Cuban forces fighting alongside Africans in their struggle for independence, resulted in a pronounced pro-Castro sentiment in the African-American community. Wrote Jay Nordlinger of African American pro-Castro sentiment in the National Review:
… there is the oft-expressed appreciation of Castro's military adventures in Africa, a gratitude for--as an article in Emerge recently put it--the "thousands of Cubans volunteered in liberation wars in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Angola, helping to defeat South Africa's apartheid military." Also, the idea persists that Castro, with his Communism, has been a friend to the poor.
Dellums was criticized for his support of Fidel Castro and was called a "Castroite congressman" by the conservative press. It was common, however, for African Americans, generally, and particularly those who were active in the Free South Africa Movement, to take a largely uncritical, even supportive, posture toward Fidel Castro. This criticism of Dellums would resurface later in his political career.
Dellums's anti-apartheid legislation
In 1972, Dellums began his campaign to end the racial segregation "apartheid" policies of South Africa. Fourteen years later, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Dellums's anti-apartheid legislation, calling for a trade embargo against South Africa and immediate divestment by American corporations. The bill finally agreed to by both houses of Congress, The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 was significantly watered down from Dellums' original language and had broad bipartisan support. It called for sanctions against South Africa and stated preconditions for lifting the sanctions, including the release of all political prisoners. Ronald Reagan called for a policy of "constructive engagement" and vetoed the bill. His veto was overridden; it was the first override in the 20th century of a foreign-policy veto.
By this time, many U.S. cities and universities, under pressure from the African-American community, already had begun a process of divestment from companies with South African operations. Japan and European nations soon also applied sanctions to South Africa. The South African government made gestures towards ending apartheid throughout the 1980s, and in 1990, South African president FW de Klerk announced that he would repeal discriminatory laws, lift the ban on opposition parties and free political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, thus ending apartheid.
Dellums' fight against apartheid in South Africa was the subject of a Disney Channel made-for-TV movie, "The Color of Friendship," released in 2000.
Arms control
Throughout his career Dellums led campaigns against defense projects, saying that the funds would be better spent on peaceful purposes, especially in U.S. cities. Programs he opposed in particular included the Pershing and MX missiles, and the B-2 Spirit (popularly known as the "stealth bomber"). Dellums was committed to defense spending reductions although he did not oppose the closing the Alameda Naval Weapons Station in his own district.
Opposition to the MX missile
The MX missile was a "third-generation" inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM). One of its advantages over earlier missiles was its greater survivability. Unlike previous missiles, the MX was mobile. The design was for fifty missiles to be placed on trains that would be shuttled between numerous hiding sheds around a railroad loop located in remote Utah. Another advantage was that the MX was a MIRVed missile - each missile had up to ten nuclear warheads.
Dellums argued that constructing the MX would only propel the ongoing arms race and cause the Soviet Union to construct more weapons. He also argued that the issue of survivability of existing missiles was a red herring; the Soviet Union could not expect a first strike to go unpunished - U.S. nuclear-equipped submarines, bombers and cruise missiles would inflict devastating damage even if all American ICBMs were disabled. As part of the campaign, Dellums met with the Mormon church in Utah.
The MX project was eventually cancelled and the last missile decommissioned in 2005 as part of the START II treaty.
Opposition to the B-2 Stealth Bomber
The B-2 Spirit (popularly known as the "stealth bomber") is a long range strategic bomber. It was a major technological step forward over the existing B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress, featuring "stealth" technology that made it far less visible to radar. However, it was designed during the Cold War for scenarios that were less relevant following the collapse of the Soviet Union and, at over 2 billion USD per aircraft, enormously expensive. Dellums opposed the B-2 project and worked to prevent procurement beyond 21 planes. Seven secretaries of defense, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Casper Weinberger, signed a letter urging Congress to buy more B-2s, citing the difficulty in assembling a similar engineering team in the future should the B-2 be cancelled. In the end, no more planes were purchased.
U.S. House Committee positions
Dellums served as chairman of the House Committee on the District of Columbia and the House Armed Services Committee. Dellums' rise to the Chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee was a result of a seniority system. He lost his Chairmanship after the Republican Party won control of the House as a result of the 1994 elections.
Dellums also served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate the Intelligence Community.
Dellums co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971.
Dellums' last Congressional election
Dellums easily won his next eleven elections in the traditionally Democratic 9th District. In his last House election race, in 1996, Dellums bested his opponent, Republican Deborah Wright, by a 77%-18% margin.
In 1997, Dellums announced that he was retiring from Congress in the middle of his term and a special election was called -- which created a series of five special elections in 12 months as various East Bay politicians ran for different political office. For more detailed information, see Special election musical chairs.
Dellums' successor, Barbara Lee won the 2000 election by an even larger, 85%-9% margin.
Voting record
Dellums' voting records in Congress were "almost without exception straight As" from groups such as the Sierra Club, the National Organization for Women and the AFL-CIO. He received 100% on consumer group Public Citizen's scorecard .
In contrast, he received an 'F' from NumbersUSA, a group dedicated to limiting immigration, and a score of 7 out of a possible 100 from the League of Private Property Owners, a property rights organization .
Oakland mayoral election
In October 2005, reportedly after weeks of deliberation and speculation, Dellums announced that he would run for mayor of Oakland. The current mayor, former California Governor Jerry Brown, is term-limited and currently running for California Attorney General.
On June 16, 2006, after nearly two weeks of ballot-counting and a dispute over whether votes for unqualified write-in candidates counted towards the total, Dellums was unofficially declared the winner in the Oakland mayoral race. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters said Dellums garnered a 50.18 percent majority -- just 155 votes more than needed to avoid a runoff with City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente.
Drug use allegations
In 1983, Dellums and his aide John Apperson were investigated for cocaine and marijuana use by the House of Representatives. After eight months, the investigation closed, having found no basis found for the charges.
Family life
Dellums has been married three times. He married his second wife, attorney Leola "Roscoe" Higgs, in 1961. The two divorced in 1998. He married his third wife, Cynthia Lewis, in 2000.
Dellums has seven children: Joshua, Alexander, Kimiko, Erik, Piper, Brandy, and Michael. Erik is a successful character actor, among whose credits include television police dramas such as New York Undercover, Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire. Piper is an author and television producer whose personal story about a white South African girl coming to live with the Dellums family in the 1970s was the basis for the Disney made-for-television movie The Color of Friendship. The film won two Emmy Awards. Michael, Dellums's son from his first marriage, was born when the couple was undergoing a divorce and was raised by his mother. Michael is currently serving a prison term for a drug-related murder.
Grenada and Cuba controversies
In 1982 Dellums took a trip to the socialist nation of Grenada at the invitation of then leader Maurice Bishop. Grenada was building an airstrip that U.S. administration officials claimed could be used for Soviet military aircraft. Dellums traveled to Grenada on his own fact-finding mission and described his findings before Congress:
...based on my personal observations, discussion and analysis of the new international airport under construction in Grenada, it is my conclusion that this project is specifically now and has always been for the purpose of economic development and is not for military use…. It is my thought that it is absurd, patronizing and totally unwarranted for the United States Government to charge that this airport poses a military threat to the United States’ national security.
After a U.S. Marine invasion of the island, a letter from Dellums' chief of staff, Carlottia Scott to the Grenadian dictator Maurice Bishop was recovered, describing Dellums' feelings towards Bishop and, presumably, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Ron has become truly committed to Grenada, and has some positive political thinking to share with you…. He’s really hooked on you and Grenada and doesn’t want anything to happen to building the Revolution and making it strong. He really admires you as a person and even more so as a leader with courage and foresight, principles and integrity…. The only other person that I know of that he expresses such admiration for is Fidel.
Additional information was recovered showing that Dellums had sent a draft copy of his report on Grenada to Bishop for editing before presenting his report to Congress.
In 1985, ethics charges were filed unsuccessfully against Dellums in the House of Representatives for his trip to Grenada.
Dellums was criticized for his support of Fidel Castro and repeatedly was called a "Castroite congressman" by the conservative press.
Lobbying activities
Dellum has a career as a lobbyist that some see as controversial. Shortly after leaving office, Dellums began consulting for an international health-care company, Healthcare Management International aimed at starting HMOs in third-world countries. The move was seen as controversial by some as the company stood to profit from Dellums' continuing advocacy of aid for Africa.
Dellums also continued to work in Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist for clients such as the East Bay Peralta Community College District and AC Transit, the organization that runs bus service in much of Dellums' old district. Others of his clients are more controversial:
- Dellums' firm lobbied for Rolls Royce, a company which manufactures military aircraft engines, and is therefore opposed by anti-war groups.
- Dellums' company lobbies for the San Francisco International Airport in its attempts to build an additional runway, which has been vigorously opposed by environmental groups.
- His company has been engaged in community relations work for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: the lab generates and stores radioactive waste and has long had a contentious relationship with its residential neighbors and the city government.
- Dellums also works for Bristol-Myers Squibb, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation.
- Dellums worked as a lobbyist for the nation of Haiti in 2001-2002. Dellums worked to support Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the controversial former President of Haiti
When running for mayor of Oakland, Dellums listed his most recent profession as "retired Congressman" in election filing forms When assistant City Clerk Marjo Keller informed the Dellums campaign that this description was unacceptable, the campaign elected to leave the occupation field blank.
Congressional tribute
Upon his resignation, several members of Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, William Coyne, Nick Rahall, Ike Skelton, Juanita Millender-McDonald and Tom DeLay gave speeches on the floor of the House in honor of Dellums. Millender-McDonald described Dellums as a "distinguished, principled educated man." Her tribute went on:
Congressman Ron Dellums is revered on both sides of this aisle because of his integrity and his commitment to progressive ideas. He was always on the cutting edge of the issues. California will miss him in the ninth district, but the State has been enriched by Ron Dellums. While he towers above most of us physically, this attribute is matched by his intellect, faith in the process and optimism for peaceful resolution of conflict.
Congressman Danny Davis of Illinois described Dellums:
A creative, piercing, probing, incisive, thought-provoking, inspiring, charismatic, careful, considerate and deliberative mind. The mind to stand up when others sit down. The mind to act when others refuse to act. The mind to stand even when you stand alone, battered, bruised and scorned, but still standing. Standing on principle, standing tall and standing for the people.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay described Dellums as "...one of the most giving, open and stalwart, a real stalwart man when he was Chairman"
We are losing one of its finest Members, a Member that I have great respect for, because he always did his homework, was so articulate and eloquent on this floor.
He always got my attention when he stood up and took the microphone. He would stop every Member in their tracks to hear what he had to say, and there are very few Members that have served in this body that can claim the respect that both sides of the aisle had for the gentleman from California. And the incredible reputation that the gentleman from California has brought to this House; he has elevated this House. He has elevated the distinction of this House by serving here, and this House will greatly miss him when he leaves.
External links
- Dellums victory signifies a sea change in Oakland politics San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 2006
- Ronald V. Dellums Political History
- "In Castro's Corner - African Americans' alleged affinity for Cuba," Jay Nordlinger, The National Review, March 26, 2000.
- Ron Dellums for Mayor of Oakland 2006 (official site)
- "Angola, 1975 to 1980s - The Great Powers Poker Game," from Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, by William Blum