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Lying Down with the Lions

A Public Life from the Streets of Oakland to the Halls of Power

Authors: Ronald V. Dellums, H. Lee Halterman

Tells the stories of Dellums’s remarkable life and of his political battles, with lessons learned about leadership, politics, and the importance of building coalitions to effect change.

Profound and humane, Lying Down with the Lions ensures Ronald Dellums’s place as one of our most important leaders of the second half of the twentieth century. When Dellums arrived in Washington in 1971 to represent Oakland, California, in the House of Representatives, his radical activism had already earned him a place on Nixon’s enemy list. When he retired in 1998—his radicalism still intact—he left a record of accomplishment that has made an indelible mark on our political landscape. He fought for sensible defense policy, health care reform, and ending apartheid in South Africa, to name just a few of his courageous struggles. From his days as a freshman from California’s 9th Congressional District, to helping to found the Congressional Black Caucus, to being the first African-American to serve on and later chair the House Armed Services Committee, Dellums’s tenure in the House is both a testament to his significant career and a crucible of American politics.

“The story of Ronald Dellums’s twenty-seven years in Congress is not just about a wild-eyed radical, a self-described ‘commie pinko Afro-topped bell-bottomed dude from Berkeley’ who earned the love of friends and the respect of enemies. It is about a man who made strategic and deliberate decisions about how and when and for how long to promote his causes, to ignore insult and outlast exclusion, to be a gentleman rather than a firebrand.” —-Megan Rosenfeld, The Washington Post

“A staunch advocate of the principles of justice and fair play. Ronald Dellums’s book offers current and future generations of activists a compelling and useful blueprint for democratic social change.” —John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO

“For twenty-seven years, no one has personified the struggle for peace with economic and social justice as Ronald Dellums has.” —-Gordon Clark, Executive Director, Peace Action

“Whether railing against apartheid in South Africa, covert wars in Asia or Latin America, wasteful military budgets or dehumanizing bureaucratic practices, Dellums elevated the entire proceedings with his soaring speeches from the House floor.”
—The Nation

“For twenty-seven years, Dellums established himself as a figure like no one who had served before—an unrepentant radical who took the battle from the streets to the floor of Congress.” —-John Nichols, The Progressive

Guide written by Nirmal Trivedi.

Introduction

This autobiography by Congressman Ronald V. Dellums addresses the central challenge that faces today's activists and politicians, namely that of finding a balance between ideals and politics. Dellums takes us to the heart of progressive politics in Washington while maintaining a thoughtful and introspective tone about personal growth in light of a lifelong commitment to public service.

As a man committed to the ideals of social equality, Dellums describes his efforts to promote peace in terms of his time in Congress, and the risks he took in holding steadfastly to his convictions. As an African-American driven to end racist practices domestically and abroad, Dellums recounts how he had "learned a long time ago from my parents, particularly my mother, that you define who you are, you don't let the other guy define who you are." This philosophy, coupled with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. that "peace is more than the absence of war, it's the presence of justice" sets the stage for what Dellums considers his greatest moment in office: escorting President Mandela to the stage of the House, marking the end to apartheid in South Africa.

The autobiography is an extension of Dellums' politics through writing: "Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe the world is constantly moving forward, that the march of life is a progressive march. I call myself a progressive because it means moving forward, constantly rethinking, and constantly reassessing. And with a very tightly drawn ideological perspective, you get caught up in time warps, you get caught up in a narrow focus. From my perspective there are values that transcend time."

Dellums' philosophical outlook of positive social change through open communication was tested when in 1977 Dellums and his family opened their home to an African exchange student. Expecting to meet a person of color, they were surprised when a white South African girl stepped off the plane, but no more so than the girl, a product of the apartheid system who viewed black people as second-class citizens. This true story, dramatized in the Disney film "The Color of Friendship" is a testament to the challenges Dellums' faced in his own life with race and politics, as well as a fresh perspective to the problem of racism and the will to fight it.

About the Authors

Ronald V. Dellums represented California's Ninth Congressional District for twenty-seven years. He is now president of Healthcare International Management Company. He lives in Washington, D.C., and will teach at Brandeis University's Heller School in Waltham, Massachusetts, during the spring 2000 semester.

H. Lee Halterman was a member of Dellums's staff and his principal spokesman, as well as the director of policy for the House Armed Services Committee during Dellums' s chairmanship. He lives in San Francisco.