C.L. Dellums Father of the West Coast Civil Rights Movement

by David Peters

Cottrell Laurence (C.L.) Dellums was once asked if he was related to Ron Dellums. His answer, “No, he’s related to me.” Many people are familiar with former Oakland mayor and Congressman Ron Dellums, but far fewer know of his uncle, C.L. Dellums, long-time Hoover/ Foster resident, and the father of the West Coast Civil Rights movement.

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C.L. Dellums got off the train in Oakland in 1923 from his home town of Corsicana, Texas. He wanted to go to law school, but soon realized that with his low wages as a Pullman Porter, he would never be able to afford the $30/semester law school tuition.

In the decades following the Civil War, working as a porter on one of the Pullman Company’s luxurious “sleeper cars” was one of the most coveted positions a Black man could attain. Although the job was demanding – porters worked long hours to keep the trains clean and the passengers happy – it was seen as a big step up from agricultural labor. As the railroads expanded, the Pullman Company became one of America’s most profitable corporations, but while the stockholders became fabulously rich, porters were forced to rely on tips to supplement their meager incomes.

In 1925, these workers formed the first nationwide Black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), to fight for better wages and less exploitative working conditions. It took a dozen years of bitter struggle, but eventually the Brotherhood’s president A. Phillip Randolph won the Pullman Company’s recognition of the union, an “unprecedented and almost inconceivable” victory that could not have been achieved without the man who lived at 829 Brockhurst Street.

His nephew Ron would carry on the family’s political legacy through his tenure as a Congressman and Oakland mayor.

Mr Dellums led a 14-year fight to establish a California Fair Employment Practices Commission and was appointed to it by Governor Pat Brown, eventually becoming its Chair.

Despite his status as an iconic labor leader, C.L. Dellums never left this neighborhood, remaining in his Brockhurst St. house until he passed away in 1989. A life-size statue of Dellums in front of the Jack London Square Amtrak station commemorates his lifetime of achievements, which included fighting for better pay and working conditions for the many Pullman porters who called West Oakland home.

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During C.L. Dellums’ long career in BSCP leadership, the union played a key role in every significant civil rights struggle from desegregating Oakland to the March on Washington. Dellums helped lead the campaign to ban “whites-only” hiring practices in defense industries, setting the stage for a massive influx from the South to the Bay Area during World War II, when shipyards hired tens of thousands of Black migrants.

Mr. Dellums was elected the first chair of the Alameda County branch of the NAACP, and in 1948, C.L. Dellums became the NAACP’s first West Coast director and used his authority to challenge police brutality, employment discrimination, and other systemic forms of racial oppression, including bringing a commission of the California Assembly to Oakland in the 1950’s to hold hearings on Oakland Police Dept brutality.

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With assistance from the Warriors and donations from Go Fund Me contributions, he was able to stay in his home for a little while longer. But the lender was insistent on taking the home for lack of payment on the loan. Neighbors and friends did all they could but Lloyd could not pay the $350,000 the lender wanted. Foreclosure was set for April, but it seems that has been put on hold.

While he awaits the outcome of things, Lloyd now lives on Market Street in Oakland in a clean new home with room enough for him and his 3 dogs. It’s not easy for him though. Even with the extensive repairs needed to the home, The Oakland Land Trust and his good friend and former neighbor are trying to get the lender to agree to a short sale of the house to them so they can then rent the house to Cannamore at an affordable price for the rest of his life.