Ron Dellums

Ron Dellums (born November 24, 1935, Oakland, California, U.S.—died July 30, 2018, Washington, D.C.) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Democratic representative from California for nearly three decades (1971–98). He was known for his outspoken criticism of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, his efforts to reduce U.S. military spending, and his championing of various progressive causes. He was a founding member (1971) of the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African American member (1973–94) and the first African American chairman (1993–94) of the House Armed Services Committee.

Dellums graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1953. After briefly attending the City College of San Francisco, he spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps (1954–56). He later earned an associate’s degree at Oakland City College in 1958, a bachelor’s degree in psychology at San Francisco State University in 1960, and a master’s degree in social work at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962. During the next six years he held various social service positions, including as a psychiatric social worker in the California Department of Mental Hygiene (1962–64). He joined the private sector in 1968, working for two years as a senior consultant for Social Dynamics, Inc., a local consulting firm.

Dellums began his political career as a member of the Berkeley city council (1967–71). In 1970 he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating the Democratic incumbent in the primaries on an antiwar platform. In the general election, U.S. Vice Pres. Spiro T. Agnew, campaigning for Dellums’s Republican opponent, branded him an “out-and-out radical” and “an enthusiastic backer of the Black Panthers,” an African American revolutionary group. Agnew’s attacks had the unintended effect of drawing favourable attention to Dellums’s campaign, and he won by a large margin. In his victory speech, Dellums thanked “my public relations expert, Spiro T. Agnew.”

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Among his first actions upon taking office in 1971 was the introduction of a resolution calling for a full-scale inquiry into alleged U.S. war crimes in Vietnam. After the House refused to act, he was permitted (by House Speaker Carl Albert) to chair his own ad hoc hearings on the issue on the condition that they be closed to the press and that no press conference be held afterward. He also conducted informal hearings on racism in the military. In 1972 he introduced the first U.S. legislation to impose economic sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid regime. Reintroduced in successive Congresses during the next 14 years, the measure was finally enacted as the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, over the veto of Pres. Ronald Reagan.

In 1973, with the assistance of the Congressional Black Caucus, Dellums became a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He was thereafter a voice of considered opposition to large military spending for the remainder of his congressional career. He was the first member of Congress to call for the termination of funding for the Peacekeeper (MX) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 1977 and of the Pershing II intermediate-range ballistic missile in 1979; he also opposed the construction of the B-1 and B-2 bombers and President Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) program. He was outspoken in his criticism of the U.S. invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989. During the prelude to U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Dellums argued passionately but in vain against a House resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq. In 1993, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he sought to persuade Pres. Bill Clinton to honour his campaign commitment to lift the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians.

As a member (1971–93) and later as chairman (1979–93) of the House Committee on the District of Columbia, Dellums examined urban issues that were not being addressed in other forums, including transportation, education, housing, public safety, and health care. From his first term in Congress he was also a strong advocate of statehood for the District of Columbia, arguing (in 1987) that “there should be no colonies in a democracy.” In 1977 he first introduced legislation to create a national health service, which would have provided free health care to all U.S. citizens.

Always popular in his district, Dellums retained his seat despite his involvement in the House banking scandal (1992), in which it was revealed that a majority of House members had overdrawn their checking accounts at the House bank (Dellums had reportedly written 851 overdrafts). In February 1998 he abruptly resigned from the House, citing personal reasons. In that year he became president of Healthcare International Management Company, which advised the newly democratic government of South Africa on improving the country’s health care system. In 2001 he founded his own lobbying firm, Dellums & Associates LLC. He returned to politics in 2006 when he was elected mayor of Oakland (2007–11).

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Dellums was the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the creation in 1999 of the Ronald V. Dellums Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a coauthor of Defense Sense: The Search for a Rational Military Policy (1983); his memoir (written with H. Lee Halterman), Lying Down with the Lions: A Public Life from the Streets of Oakland to the Halls of Power, was published in 2000.