Ron Dellums
Nov 24, 1935 – Jul 30, 2018
Politician, Activist, Social Worker, Educator
The first African-American to serve as chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee.
The first African American elected to Congress from Northern California
The first openly socialist successful non-incumbent Congressional candidate since World War II.
He served as the forty-eight mayor of Oakland, California, from 2007 to 2011. He previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Northern California’s 9th Congressional District, in office from 1971 to 1998, after which he worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. and one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus which was established in 1971, died early Monday July 30, He was 82
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Dellums was born in Oakland, California, to Verney and Willa (Terry) Dellums. His father was a longshoreman. His uncle, C. L. Dellums, was one of the organizers and leaders of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He has a younger sister Theresa. His mother Willa died on August 17, 2008, at the age of 89.
Dellums 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 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.
Dellums has eight children and stepchildren