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Ronald Vernie Dellums (November 24, 1935 – July 30, 2018) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 9th congressional district, in office from 1971 to 1998, after which he worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
Dellums was born into a family of labor organizers, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps before serving on the Berkeley, California, City council. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California and the first successful openly socialist non-incumbent Congressional candidate after World War II. His politics earned him a place on President Nixon's enemies list.
During his career in Congress, he fought the MX Missile project and opposed expansion of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber program. When President Ronald Reagan vetoed Dellums's Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controlled Senate overrode Reagan's veto, the first override of a presidential foreign-policy veto in the 20th century.
Dellums attended St. Patrick Catholic School, 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 Laney College, now Merritt College, in 1958, his B.A. from 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 San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Dellums was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was also a member of the fraternity's World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand the fraternity's involvement in politics, and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.
Dellums was 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.
One son, Michael, was convicted of a drug-related homicide in 1979, and remains in prison, being repeatedly denied parole due to bad behavior. Dellums had five other children: anthropologist Rachel R. Chapman, professional actor Erik Dellums, author Piper Dellums, Brandon and Pam; six grandchildren: Danielle Henderson, Jacob Holmes, Sydney Ross, Dylan Ross, Olivia Dellums, and actress Solea Pfeiffer; and two great-grandchildren: Jared Henderson and Charli Henderson.
In 1972, Dellums was reelected to Congress, 60 to 38 percent over his Republican opponent, Peter D. Hannaford, an advisor to then Governor Ronald Reagan.
His politics earned him a place on the so-called Nixon's Enemies List, where his notation stated Dellums "had extensive Ted Kennedy-Tunney support in his election bid."
Dellums's fight against apartheid in South Africa was the subject of a Disney Channel made-for-TV film, The Color of Friendship, released in 2000. The role of Congressman Dellums was played in the film by actor Carl Lumbly.
The B-2 Stealth Bomber is a long-range strategic bomber, that features stealth technology that makes it far less visible to radar. The B-2 was a major technological advance; however, it was designed during the Cold War for military scenarios that some argued were less relevant following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its total program cost was estimated in 1997 at over US$2.2 billion per airplane.
Although Dellums opposed the B-2 project from the start, Congress approved initial funding for production of 135 bombers in 1987. However, with the winding down of the Cold War, total B-2 production was reduced to 21 aircraft in the early 1990s. But in 1997, seven former Secretaries of Defense signed a letter urging Congress to buy more B-2s, citing the difficulty of assembling a similar engineering team in the future should the B-2 project be terminated. Dellums, citing five independent studies consistent with his position, offered an amendment to that year's defense authorization bill to cap production of the bombers with the existing 21 aircraft. The amendment was narrowly defeated; Debate on Dellums Amendment to 1998 Defense Authorization Act June 23, 1997. nonetheless, Congress never approved funding for additional B-2 bombers.
The My Lai massacre was followed shortly thereafter by a series of hearings on war crimes in Vietnam, which began April 25, 1971. Dellums had called for formal investigations into the allegations, but Congress chose not to endorse the 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; however, the proceedings were transcribed. A small number of other anti-Vietnam War congressional representatives also took part in the hearings.
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 and co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus in 1991.
In 1997, Dellums announced that he was retiring from Congress in the middle of his term, and his resignation forced a special election for the balance of his term–– which created a series of five special elections in 12 months as various East Bay politicians ran for different political offices.
Dellums's successor, Barbara Lee, won the 2000 election by an even larger, 85%–9% margin.
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.
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.
Four years later, he was again nominated as the presidential candidate, this time for the Independent Freedom Party, but refused the nomination because the IFP had not yet created an effective political structure.Glasrud, Bruce A. & Cary D. Wintz, eds. African Americans and the Presidency: The Road to the White House. New York: Routledge, 2010. 27. In that year's Democratic National Convention, Dellums received three delegate votes for the Presidential nomination.
Dellums worked in Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist for clients such as the East Bay Peralta Community College District and AC Transit, the public transit district charged with offering mass transit throughout the East Bay. Dellums's firm lobbied for Rolls-Royce plc, a company that manufactures aircraft engines. He also worked on behalf of the San Francisco International Airport during its attempts to build additional runway capacity, which has been vigorously opposed by environmental groups. His company was engaged in community relations work for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which conducts scientific research on behalf of the Department of Energy, and has long had a contentious relationship with its residential neighbors and the Berkeley city council. In addition he lobbied for Bristol-Myers Squibb, a multinational pharmaceutical corporation.
In 2017, Bill Browder testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that representatives of Vladimir Putin had hired "Howard Schweitzer of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies and former Congressman Ronald Dellums to lobby members of Congress on Capitol Hill to repeal the Magnitsky Act and to remove Sergei's name from the Global Magnitsky bill." The bill is named for the Russian lawyer who was murdered in prison for pursuing the corruption of Putin's allies. Dellums also worked with the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative to oppose sanctions on Russia.
Dellums lobbied for the government in 2001–2002 and worked to support Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected, former President of Haiti who was deposed in a 2004 coup. Democracy Now! | Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
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.
A former East Bay Express columnist once wrote a column titled "Dellums for Dollars" criticizing Dellums's lobbying. Speaking in defense of Dellums, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson said that, if asked, Dellums would likely say "just because I'm advocating for a company that may be paying me consulting fees, I'm not selling out my beliefs."
In October 2005, reportedly after weeks of deliberation and speculation, Dellums announced that he would run for mayor of Oakland. The incumbent mayor, former California Governor Jerry Brown, was prohibited by term limits from running again.
On June 16, 2006, after a careful ballot count, and a dispute over whether votes for unqualified write-in candidates such as George W. Bush and Homer Simpson counted towards the total, Dellums was unofficially declared the winner in the Oakland mayoral race. Dellums garnered a 50.18 percent majority to win the election. This was 155 votes more than needed to avoid a runoff. Dellums received 41,992 votes, while his nearest challengers received 27,607 votes, and 10,928 votes respectively.
In addition, to follow through on his calls for hiring more officers, Dellums offered Measure NN on the November 2008 ballot, a voter initiative parcel tax to hire 70 additional police officers at a hiring and training cost of $250,000 each. Though 55 percent of Oakland voters supported Measure NN, this failed to meet California's "two thirds" constitutional requirement for the enactment of a new tax.
Dellums's administration negotiated the passage of a new police contract which was especially noteworthy, as it broke the Oakland Police Officers Association's opposition to the civilianization of certain OPD positions which were previously staffed by "sworn," uniformed police officers, with concomitant payrolls and police academy training costs. OPD then hired "non-sworn" personnel to work some of its desk jobs and administrative jobs, freeing up academy uniformed officers for street patrol and investigative work.
On March 21, 2009, during the 2009 Oakland police shootings incident, the Oakland Police Department lost three sergeants and one officer. One of the officers left instructions in his emergency packet that if he were killed in the line of duty that Dellums not be permitted to speak at his funeral. Two of the officers' families requested the same, and when Dellums attended the March 28 public memorial service at the Oracle Arena he honored the requests. Thousands Attend Funeral For 4 Oakland Officers AP, March 28, 2009.
In his State of the City address in 2008 Dellums promised to reduce the crime rate by 10% during 2009; the crime rate actually went down by 13%.V. Smoothe, "A Better Oakland", Oakland Crime Stats, November 2009.
In 2009 Dellums hired the highly regarded Anthony Batts, formerly the Long Beach police chief. Batts had a record of reducing both crime and police shootings in that Southern California city.
In 2009 Dellums launched an anti-drop-out initiative which included sponsoring back to school rallies at City Hall and participating with the school district in truancy reduction efforts. He accepted an invitation from the national organization, America's Promise, to join their efforts at drop-out prevention. As part of this effort, he started Oakland's Promise, recruited several dozen community-based organizations to participate, held a Summit with 350 participants, and adopted an Action Plan to cut Oakland's drop-out rate in half.
From 2008, Dellums campaigned to bring millions in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act federal stimulus funding to Oakland, using both his extensive Washington D.C. contacts and the idea of the Model City. By the end of 2009, his efforts had yielded US$65 million in stimulus funding for Oakland, including the largest police grant of any city in the country, and the second largest amount in competitive funding after Chicago.
In 2007, Oakland reporter Elise Ackerman launched an unsuccessful campaign to recall Dellums and released an open letter addressed to Dellums. When addressing a town hall-style meeting in 2007, Dellums declared: "I'm giving it everything that I have. If that's not enough, that's cool. Recall me and let me get on with my private life."
Dellums later announced he would not seek a second term as mayor of Oakland in the 2010 election. He was succeeded by Jean Quan.
While running for mayor of Oakland, Dellums was officially registered as a member of the Democratic Party.California election results online
On October 1, 2007, Dellums endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary at a press conference held at Laney College in Oakland. He was named national chair of Clinton's Urban Policy Committee. HillaryClinton.com - Media Release
Dellums was a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.
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