Mervyn Dymally (1926-2012)
As the first African American elected to the California State Senate, the first African American Lieutenant Governor in California, the first chairman of the California Legislative Black Caucus, and the first Trinidadian to become a state senator and lieutenant governor in California, Mervyn Malcom Dymally broke ground many times in his lengthy political career. In addition to these firsts, he was also a California State Assemblymember and a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Born in Trinidad in 1926, Dymally moved to the United States when he was a teenager to attend college, graduating from California State University at Los Angeles and Sacramento with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and government, and a PhD from United States International University, San Diego.
First elected to the California State Assembly in 1962, Dymally became a founding member of the California Legislative Black Caucus and its first chairman after he was elected to the State Senate. Dymally’s legislative interests centered on economic development and human rights. He passed legislation in partnership with the University of California at Los Angeles that established medical training for doctors at Martin Luther King, Jr. General Hospital in Los Angeles County. He became the first African American California Lieutenant Governor, and among the first African Americans to hold statewide constitutional office, in 1974 before moving on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980. After decades in the U.S. Congress, Dymally came back to California to serve his constituents again as an Assemblymember from 2002 to 2008. Dymally passed away five years after retiring from his prolific political career in 2012.
The California State Archives is home to an oral history interview with Dymally recorded in 1997.
