1. Mervyn Malcolm Dymally was an American politician from California.
17 Facts About Mervyn Dymally
1. 2.
Mervyn 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.
3.
Mervyn Dymally moved to the United States to study journalism at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.
4.
Mervyn Dymally became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity in 1949.
5.
Mervyn Dymally earned his doctorate in human behavior from United States International University in San Diego.
6.
Mervyn 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.
7.
Mervyn Dymally was elected to the California State Senate, the Legislature's upper house, in 1966; initially for a two-year term.
8.
In 1974, Dymally was elected lieutenant governor 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.
9.
Mervyn Dymally was the first Trinidadian to serve California as a state senator and as lieutenant governor.
10.
Mervyn Dymally was an old friend of Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones.
11.
In 1980, two years after losing the lieutenant governorship, Dymally ran for Congress in District 31, against former US representative Mark W Hannaford and 18-year incumbent Charles H Wilson, who had been reprimanded by his US House colleagues for financial misconduct in the Koreagate scandal.
12.
Mervyn Dymally was one of the first persons of Dougla origin to serve in Congress.
13.
In 1983 Mervyn Dymally joined with seven other US representatives to sponsor a resolution to impeach Ronald Reagan over his sudden and unexpected invasion of Grenada.
14.
Mervyn Dymally retired in 1992, after six terms in Congress.
15.
Mervyn Dymally came out of retirement and returned to the State Assembly in 2002 when Assemblyman Carl Washington was term limited.
16.
Mervyn Dymally served for six years and then, himself term-limited, ran to return to the State Senate in 2008.
17.
Mervyn Dymally died in Los Angeles and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.