Dymally to Retire; Blazed Path for Blacks in Politics

After three decades of sometimes brash eadership, Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) announced Monday that he is retiring, ending a career in which the former janitor became one of California’s most prominent black politicians.

At a Compton breakfast meeting jammed with several hundred supporters, Dymally said he promised himself long ago that he would resign when he turned 65. Now 66, Dymally said it is time for new leadership.

“I did not get elected to stay in office forever,” Dymally said while autographing coffee mugs for constituents. “There comes a time when a person just has to go . . . I have no regrets. The people have supported me. They have permitted me to be independent and even wrong sometimes.”

First elected to the Assembly in 1962, Dymally would eventually become the state’s first black lieutenant governor and state senator. His list of firsts also includes being the country’s first foreign-born congressman. He was first elected to Congress in 1980.

As expected, Dymally endorsed his daughter, Lynn Dymally, to replace him in the newly created 37th Congressional District, which includes Compton, Carson, Lynwood and parts of Willowbrook and Wilmington. Lynn Dymally is a member of the Compton Unified School District board.

Compton Mayor Walter R. Tucker III also has announced his intention to run for the seat. Other possible candidates are Assemblyman Willard H. Murray Jr. (D-Paramount) and Assemblywomen Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles) and Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles).

At the breakfast, Dymally gave his daughter a tiny, worn Catholic prayer book given to him by his sister when he left his native Trinidad in 1946 to come to the United States.

“I trust you will find this inspirational whenever you face trials and tribulations,” he said.

Dymally has had his own trials and tribulations.

He has been accused of conflict of interest, criticized for frequent trips overseas at taxpayer expense and felt the sting of conservatives who liked neither his aggressive liberal platform nor his blunt manner.

In the early ‘80s, federal investigators looked into allegations that Long Beach church leaders had conspired to pay Dymally $10,000 to help shield them from a Justice Department probe. A U.S attorney cleared Dymally of any wrongdoing.

Questions were raised in 1985 about the use of a $100,000 grant that Dymally arranged for a black university in Raleigh, N.C. Local newspapers there reported that some of the money was not being used for its intended purpose and was instead being spent for the Caribbean-American Research Institute, which Dymally chairs. No charges were ever brought against Dymally.

In 1990, a diamond merchant gave $34,200 to a foundation which finances the Dymally Scholarship fund after the congressman backed away from his support of U.S. trade sanctions against South African diamonds. Dymally denied he had been influenced by the contribution but resigned as chairman of the fund.

Dymally has angrily denied ever doing anything illegal or unethical during his time in office, blaming his political opponents and the press for making him an object of controversy.

“You either like Merv and understand him, or you don’t,” said Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles). “Merv builds a lot of goodwill . . . but he certainly has his controversial side.”

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Dymally traveled extensively throughout the world. Last year, he traveled to more than 20 African countries in his efforts to establish trade relations between the United States and Africa. Although Dymally said he was home every weekend when Congress was in session, he was criticized for ignoring the pressing crime, drug, gang and unemployment problems that plague his district.

Dymally blames the press for making him an object of controversy. The Times, he said, has “bashed” him for 30 years.

“I was brash and I was foreign, and a lot of whites resented that,” Dymally said. “West Indian politics are very radical and I learned that one reason I was disliked, especially by the press, was that my radicalness was too brash.”

“I’m just having a hard time figuring it out,” he said. “I’m criticized for helping my friends. Well who the hell do you help, your enemies? “

Dymally was born and raised in the Caribbean and came to the United States at age 20. He worked as a janitor, a union organizer and a teacher.

Although controversy dogged Dymally, he consistently won accolades from liberal groups and he has defeated all challengers to his congressional seat.

Dixon, who served as an administrative assistant to Dymally in the 1960s, praised his former boss as someone who cleared the way for other blacks to pursue political careers.

“I would say his greatest legacy has been (serving as) a mentor, responsible, in part, for a lot of elected people in the black community,” Dixon said, adding that Dymally spent a good part of his tenure as a state senator campaigning on behalf of minority candidates throughout California.

“Dymally was an absolute pioneer in the black community,” said Los Angeles political consultant Joe Cerrell. “I can take you down the line with the people he has brought into politics. There’s Moore, state Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles) Murray and on.”

Larry Berg, a political scientist at USC and director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, said Dymally’s place in history will come from his role as one of the first black California politicians to “rise up through the ranks,” eventually becoming the first black elected statewide when he became lieutenant governor in 1975.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story.