Ron Dellums

Ronald Vernie Dellums was born on November 24, 1935, in the West Oakland district of Oakland, California, into a family steeped in the labor movement. His father, Verney (Vernie) Dellums, was a longshoreman and a member of ILWU Local 10; his uncle, C. L. Dellums, was a leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. From these organizers young Ron drew a lifelong conviction that ordinary people, joined together, could bend power toward justice.

He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1954 to 1956, then earned an associate degree from Oakland City College (1958), a bachelor's from San Francisco State University (1960), and a master's in social work from the University of California, Berkeley (1962). Working as a psychiatric social worker in his community, he entered public life on the Berkeley City Council in 1967, and in 1970 anti-war activists recruited him to Congress.

For twenty-seven years Dellums represented the East Bay in the U.S. House, serving across California's redrawn 7th, 8th, and 9th districts from 1971 to 1998. An avowed democratic socialist, he became the first African American to chair the House Armed Services Committee (1993–1995). Above all he was the conscience of the anti-apartheid cause, whose decades of labor produced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 — passed over a presidential veto.

He later returned home to serve as mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011, and died in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2018. Ron Dellums stood, unbending, for the dignity of the poor and the freedom of the oppressed — a voice that spoke truth to power and never wavered.