# Mervyn Dymally

Mervyn Malcolm Dymally (May 12, 1926 – October 7, 2012) was an American politician from California. A Democrat, he served in the California State Assembly (1963–1966) and the California State Senate (1967–1975), as the 41st lieutenant governor of California (1975–1979), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1981–1993). Dymally returned to politics a decade later to again serve in the California State Assembly (2003–2008).
Dymally was the second African-American to hold statewide office in California, following Wilson Riles, who served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction starting in 1971.

## Early life and education

Born in Cedros, Trinidad and Tobago, Dymally first received his secondary education at Naparima College before transferring to Saint Benedict's College, both in San Fernando. He is of Dougla (mixed African and Indian) descent.
He moved to the United States to study journalism at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. After a semester there, he moved to the greater Los Angeles area to attend Chapman University, and completed a Bachelor of Arts in education at California State University, Los Angeles in 1954. Dymally became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity in 1949. Dymally became a U.S. citizen in 1957.
In 1969, while serving in the California State Legislature, he earned a master's degree in government from California State University, Sacramento. Dymally earned his doctorate in human behavior from United States International University (later merged into Alliant International University) in San Diego .

## Career

Dymally was first elected to the California State Assembly, the lower house of the state Legislature, in 1962, from District 53; he was re-elected in 1964.
He was elected to the California State Senate, the Legislature's upper house, in 1966; initially for a two-year term. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that state legislatures must reapportion their upper houses on the basis of population; in the process in California, the even-numbered districts elected their senators for full four-year terms in 1966. As Dymally was in District 29, he had to run again in 1968; he won and was re-elected in 1972.

### Lt. Governor

In 1974, Dymally was elected lieutenant governor (49.2%-46.3%) over Republican incumbent John L. Harmer, who had just been appointed to fill a vacancy in the office a month earlier and until then had been Dymally's colleague in the state Senate.
Dymally was the first Trinidadian to serve California as a state senator and as lieutenant governor. He and George L. Brown of Colorado became the first two African Americans elected to the office of lieutenant governor since Oscar Dunn did so in Louisiana during Reconstruction.
In the tightly contested race for lieutenant governor in 1978, Dymally's bid for re-election was derailed when Michael Franchetti, an aide to State Senator George Deukmejian, floated a false rumor that Dymally was about to be indicted. The story, coming days before the election, harmed the Dymally campaign, and Dymally lost to Republican Mike Curb.
Franchetti later said that the source of the rumor was a Los Angeles Times reporter, who called the Justice Department trying to confirm its authenticity. Franchetti could not substantiate the rumor but included it in a report. The report was passed to Curb's office with the rumor part erased, after which it moved to broadcaster Bill Stout, who announced it as fact on Los Angeles radio station KNX (AM) and its CBS affiliates. (Stout's wife worked for Curb.) Then-Attorney General Evelle J. Younger filed a letter of reprimand in Franchetti's personnel records, accusing him of a breach of responsibility.
Dymally was an old friend of Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones. When Jones decided to move his congregation to Jonestown, Guyana, Dymally "wrote the Guyanese prime minister [Forbes Burnham] to reassure him that Jones was an upstanding citizen." The Jonestown compound would be the site of the mass suicide of over 900 people on November 18, 1978.

### Congress

In 1980, two years after losing the lieutenant governorship, Dymally ran for Congress in District 31, against former U.S. representative Mark W. Hannaford (who had served two terms in a nearby district) and 18-year incumbent Charles H. Wilson, who had been reprimanded by his U.S. House colleagues for financial misconduct in the Koreagate scandal. Dymally won the primary with 49% of the vote, to 24% for Hannaford and just 15% for Wilson; he went on to defeat Republican Don Grimshaw in the general election, 64%-36%. He was one of the first persons of Dougla (mixed African and Indian) origin to serve in Congress.
In 1983 Dymally joined with seven other U.S. representatives to sponsor a resolution to impeach Ronald Reagan over his sudden and unexpected invasion of Grenada. He retired in 1992, after six terms in Congress.
In the 1990s, Dymally served as a paid lobbyist for the country of Mauritania, attempting to present the country as engaged in abolishing every remnant of slavery.

### Return to state assembly

Dymally came out of retirement and returned to the State Assembly in 2002 when Assemblyman Carl Washington was term limited. He served for six years and then, himself term-limited, ran to return to the State Senate in 2008. At 82, he was defeated in the Senate primary by Rod Wright.

### Death and burial

Dymally died in Los Angeles and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

### Legacy

Mervyn M. Dymally High School, at 88th and San Pedro streets in South Central Los Angeles and part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is named in his honor.

## Congressional electoral history

1980 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally | 69,146 | 64.4 |
| | Republican | Don Grimshaw | 38,203 | 35.6 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 107,349 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
1982 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally (Incumbent) | 86,718 | 72.4 |
| | Republican | Henry C. Minturn | 33,043 | 27.6 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 119,761 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
1984 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally (Incumbent) | 100,658 | 70.7 |
| | Republican | Henry C. Minturn | 41,691 | 29.3 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 142,349 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
1986 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally (Incumbent) | 77,126 | 70.3 |
| | Republican | Jack McMurray | 30,322 | 27.6 |
| | Peace and Freedom | B. Kwaku Duren | 2,333 | 2.1 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 109,781 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
1988 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally (Incumbent) | 100,919 | 71.6 |
| | Republican | Arnold C. May | 36,017 | 25.5 |
| | Peace and Freedom | B. Kwaku Duren | 4,091 | 2.9 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 151,027 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
1990 United States House of Representatives elections in California :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mervyn M. Dymally (Incumbent) | 56,394 | 67.1 |
| | Republican | Eunice N. Sato | 27,593 | 32.9 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 83,987 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |