William Byron Rumford
Encyclopedia
William Byron Rumford was an American
pharmacist
and politician
. He was the first African American elected to any public office in Northern California
.
town, the second of Chauncey G. Rumford and Margaret Lee Johnson's two sons. His father, who had left the family when Rumford was very young, lived in Los Angeles
, where his family had moved in about 1910 from Iowa
by way of Colorado Springs.
Rumford's mother's side were some of the first American settler
s of Arizona. His maternal grandmother ran a boarding house
in Tombstone
and fought to keep school Tucson
public schools desegregated
. When Whites established separate schools, she relocated to Los Angeles, having decided that "she was not going to bring those kids up in a segregated environment." Rumford remained with his mother in Tucson, where she worked as a housekeeper. His older brother Chauncey moved to Los Angeles to live with his father and paternal grandmother, and Rumford and his mother soon moved to Phoenix
, where she married a barber, Elmer J. Williams. They joined the rest of the family in Los Angeles in 1915, living for a time in a large house on Burlington Avenue. There, his paternal grandmother's sister, who was a songwriter, poet, and painter, helped Delilah L. Beasley
write her 1916 history The Negro Trail Blazers of California.
His stepfather, however, did not take to Los Angeles well, and returned the family to Phoenix. His mother and stepfather had children of their own, and Williams paid little attention to the Rumford brothers, who had to work to survive.
, by his high school teachers, particularly Ellis Knox, a Berkeley alumnus who later became the first African American to receive a doctorate on the West Coast. At the age of 18, he moved to San Francisco and worked for a year before enrolling in Sacramento Junior College
. He was accepted to the school of pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco
, and worked as a parking valet and a doorman at night. He graduated in 1931.
Rumford was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha
(AΦA) fraternity.
. And later I came back, took it again, and I flunked it again." According to Rumford, the board was "asking silly questions [...] to get rid of blacks."
He then took the examination for state VD investigator and passed, but failed the state examination a third time. He visited the member of the personnel board that lived in Oakland. Christenson, the board member, appealed the board's decision to fail Rumford on the grounds that he was asked irrelevant questions. Rumford appealed on the grounds that the board had publicized the statistic that African Americans suffered from sexually transmitted disease
s at a greater rate than other ethnic groups, but had not taken the opportunity to do something about it. He won the appeal and was granted state certification. He became the first African American hired at Highland Hospital
in Oakland, California
, where he was assistant pharmacist. There he worked under Dr. Benjamin Black, a former army doctor, "outstanding authorit[y] in hospital administration", and "a very prejudiced person." Black was hesitant to hire Rumford, suspecting him of wanting to "make trouble," and was reluctant to raise his salary. But with the help of influential friends, including Thomas E. Caldecott
and county Supervisor Harry Bartell, he received a raise at the beginning of World War II
. However, he left the job due to the low pay, and was appointed VD investigator. For about a year, he worked primarily at army bases, such as Camp Knight, where his main responsibility was apprehending carriers of STDs. When not on base, he worked in city clinics.
In 1942, while still working for the state, he purchased a pharmacy in Berkeley. He tried to work both jobs, but eventually devoted his energies to the business.
appointed Rumford to the Emergency Housing Committee, which sought to find housing for wartime laborers. In his capacity as committee member, he was able to push for more integrated housing.
He helped organize the Berkeley Interracial Committee, a citizen's committee whose purpose was to "placate and to welcome some of the people and to ameliorate some of the problems that did arise as a result of the influx" of Southerners
. The Berkeley Interracial Committee welcomed the Southerners to the community and helped them when they ran into problems. It worked with the Committee on Fair Play to fight the Japanese American internment
, and helped the City establish a Human Relations Commission.
In 1944, Governor
Earl Warren
appointed Rumford to the Rent Control Board, a state agency that was part of a federal wartime program to keep wages and rents down.
. He had been involved with the Appomattox Club, "perhaps one of the first" African American political organizations in the Bay Area, since 1932, when it supported the policies of the Roosevelt administration. In the primary, he was supported by the club, as well as by a community caucus, and a group of African American ministers. The CIO
withheld support, seeing Rumford as not radical enough. He won the primary, but lost the election to Edgar Hurley, who had filed as both a Republican and a Democrat. Rumford took the case to court, which found that his numbers were much higher than expected in certain areas, and ruled that Rumford had been the rightful winner of the election. Major issues in the campaign were the desegregation
of the National Guard
and ending discrimination
in the hiring of teachers. He began his term as representative of the 17th assembly district in January 1949, joining Gus Hawkins of Los Angeles, who was one of the few legislators who pushed legislation that would benefit African Americans.
Rumford was a Prince Hall freemason, but the masons were not involved in the desegregation movement.
In his first year in the state assembly, Rumford succeeded in passing a barring discrimination in the state National Guard. When it reached the state senate
, its chances of passing were slim. But Rumford personally lobbied senators Richard J. Dolwig and Earl Desmond
, and the bill passed the senate as well. In reality, it was not implemented because the members of already-existing black units did not want to lose their titles and ranks. However, no new black units were created, and the Guard was eventually integrated.
In 1953, Rumford invited Governor Earl Warren to address the national convention of Alpha Phi Alpha
, held in Berkeley. Despite illness and torrential rain, Warren was glad to make the speech and meet those convened.
While Rumford was in the legislature, his Berkeley pharmacy "became an informal headquarters for other emerging politicians, such as future mayor Lionel Wilson
and California Supreme Court Justice Allen Broussard
."
. The bill had originally been introduced by Hawkins in 1945, but it never got out of committee. C. L. Dellums
and other members of the NAACP lobbied in favor of the bill. It passed the assembly in 1955 with the support of Democrats, some of whom were personally opposed to it but succumbed to pressure from within the party, and even a few Republicans, "because they thought it was basically and morally right." It was signed by incoming Governor Pat Brown
in 1959, and the Fair Employment Practices Commission
was set up the same year.
Rumford served on the assembly's Civil Service Commission, which addressed issues of discrimination in government employment, including the California Highway Patrol
and the State Department of Public Health. He also attempted to secure raises for members of the California State Employees Association.
In 1953, he became chairman of the Public Health Committee. He was part of a delegation that went to Detroit to discuss the issue of air pollution
with the automotive industry and their researchers. They convinced the industry to send technicians to testify before a joint committee of the California legislature. He was also sent to Germany
as a Citizen-Ambassador for the State Department to investigate forms of public transportation. The Public Health Committee passed the first air pollution control act in 1955. It also passed some of the first radiation control acts in the country.
Rumford also served on the "Little Hoover Committee," which made recommendations for the reorganization of government. In the 1950s, he was appointed chairman of the Records Management Program for the Weinberger
Committee on Government Reorganization. The Committee investigated corruption in the State Board of Equalization
, which was illegally selling liquor licenses, and sent several of its members to San Quentin State Prison
.
The Weinberger Committee also successfully passed the Water Resources Act of 1956, which set up the State Water Board.
In 1959, Rumford investigated the health effects of DDT
, and discovered pesticides in milk
supplies.
In 1963, Rumford introduced assembly bill 1240, the Fair Housing Bill. It became known as the Rumford Fair Housing Bill, and its purpose was to outlaw discrimination in housing. The bill was at the top of Governor Brown's legislative agenda, and it had been endorsed by the NAACP and the California Democratic Party. Nonetheless, it faced strong opposition and was amended several times before being passed by a vote of 47 to 24. When it reached the state senate, members of the Congress of Racial Equality
occupied the rotunda of the California State Capitol
. Rumford asked them to leave, but they refused. The bill was held up for three months, and the committee didn't hold a hearing on it until the last day of the session. Despite the opposition of the California Real Estate Association, the Apartment House Owners Association, and the Chamber of Commerce, the bill passed the senate and was signed into law by Governor Brown.
Rather than seeking to amend the law, the opposition to the Rumford Fair Housing Act sought to amend the California Constitution
to permit housing discrimination with California Proposition 14. Though it passed, it was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
.
that reflected the population growth in Alameda County. According to Rumford, "Mr. Holmdahl and those in the assembly who were doing the reapportioning saw fit not to divide Alameda County into two seats, but to have the two prospective senators running at-large—largely, I believe, because they were fearful that some black might be elected from a portion of the county." Holmdahl, the current senator, announced that he would not run to keep his seat, which eased the tension between Rumford and Petris, the other contender. The two met and agreed that Petris would run for the two-year seat and Rumford the four-year.
Petris's law partner, Edward Fitzsimmons, filed for candidacy, as did Superior Court Judge Victor Wagner and another candidate. The campaign in swing, Petris wrote an endorsement letter for Fitzsimmons, stating that Fitzsimmons would make a better senator. Nonetheless, Rumford soundly defeated all of his opponents in the primary.
In the general election, he faced the poorly-funded Republican candidate, Lewis Sherman. It was the first time that electronic voting machine
s were used. A reporter informed him that numerous votes had not been counted. Rumford was told that there were 10,000 ballots that had not been counted because "they wouldn't go through the machine." Since the results showed that he was only 600 votes behind, he requested a recount. Recounting, he noticed that a number of ballots were filled out with the same handwriting. Two deputies agreed, and Rumford halted the recount. U.S. Attorney Cecil Poole asked the FBI to look into the case. After a ten-day investigation, the FBI declared that the case had no merit.
Rumford took the case to Alameda County district attorney Frank Coakley, who found large discrepancies between the registrar's records and those kept by the precincts. He requested that the handwriting expert from the State Identification Bureau examine the handwriting samples, but said they were not the same. Rumford and Coakley wanted a second opinion, so Coakley hired the San Francisco postmaster to examine the samples over Rumford's suggestion to have a UC professor of criminology do it. However, before the postmaster received the ballots, they were sent back to the expert from the State Identification Bureau, where they may have been changed. The postmaster ame to the same conclusion as the other investigators.
Door-to-door studies found that "there had been no purging of the county list for years and that thousands of sample ballots were lodged in the post offices, both in Oakland and Berkeley." Rumford brought the issue to the attention of the Grand Jury
, but the body took no action.
In 1970, he was selected to serve on the Grand Jury, and volunteered for the Committee on Courts Enforcement, which looked into the electoral system in Alameda County. While the commission did not open the case of Rumford's senate run, it did make inquiries into the registration process and as to why so many people were ineligible to vote, as well as looking into the reasons for the quantities of ballots at the post office.
, invited Rumford to Washington D.C. to help him with the commission's work protecting consumers.
In 1980, a segment of the Grove-Shafter Freeway was renamed the William Byron Rumford freeway in his honor.
The postal station at the Oakland federal building is named for him, as is a senior housing community in Berkeley.
His archive
s are housed at the African American Museum and Library
at the Oakland Public Library
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He was the first African American elected to any public office in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
.
Family background
Rumford was born in Courtland, Arizona, a now-defunct miningMining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
town, the second of Chauncey G. Rumford and Margaret Lee Johnson's two sons. His father, who had left the family when Rumford was very young, lived in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where his family had moved in about 1910 from Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
by way of Colorado Springs.
Rumford's mother's side were some of the first American settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s of Arizona. His maternal grandmother ran a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
in Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
and fought to keep school Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
public schools desegregated
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. When Whites established separate schools, she relocated to Los Angeles, having decided that "she was not going to bring those kids up in a segregated environment." Rumford remained with his mother in Tucson, where she worked as a housekeeper. His older brother Chauncey moved to Los Angeles to live with his father and paternal grandmother, and Rumford and his mother soon moved to Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, where she married a barber, Elmer J. Williams. They joined the rest of the family in Los Angeles in 1915, living for a time in a large house on Burlington Avenue. There, his paternal grandmother's sister, who was a songwriter, poet, and painter, helped Delilah L. Beasley
Delilah L. Beasley
Delilah Leontium Beasley , was an American historian, and newspaper columnist for the Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, USA...
write her 1916 history The Negro Trail Blazers of California.
His stepfather, however, did not take to Los Angeles well, and returned the family to Phoenix. His mother and stepfather had children of their own, and Williams paid little attention to the Rumford brothers, who had to work to survive.
Education
Rumford graduated from a segregated high school in Phoenix in 1926. He was inspired to attend the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, by his high school teachers, particularly Ellis Knox, a Berkeley alumnus who later became the first African American to receive a doctorate on the West Coast. At the age of 18, he moved to San Francisco and worked for a year before enrolling in Sacramento Junior College
Sacramento City College
Sacramento City College is a two-year community college located in Sacramento, California. SCC is part of the Los Rios Community College District and had an enrollment of 25,307 in 2009. Sacramento City College is officially accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges , offering...
. He was accepted to the school of pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
, and worked as a parking valet and a doorman at night. He graduated in 1931.
Rumford was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...
(AΦA) fraternity.
Career
In 1933, Rumford passed the examination for employment with the State of California at a time when few blacks worked for the state. He also took the examination for investigator on the California Board of Pharmacy, passing the written portion twice, but failing the oral portion two times. "I think I frightened everybody to death on the board when I was there for my oral examination. [...] I took the examination for food and drug investigator and I flunked the oral after they asked me about Joe LouisJoe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
. And later I came back, took it again, and I flunked it again." According to Rumford, the board was "asking silly questions [...] to get rid of blacks."
He then took the examination for state VD investigator and passed, but failed the state examination a third time. He visited the member of the personnel board that lived in Oakland. Christenson, the board member, appealed the board's decision to fail Rumford on the grounds that he was asked irrelevant questions. Rumford appealed on the grounds that the board had publicized the statistic that African Americans suffered from sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
s at a greater rate than other ethnic groups, but had not taken the opportunity to do something about it. He won the appeal and was granted state certification. He became the first African American hired at Highland Hospital
Highland Hospital (Oakland, California)
Highland Hospital is a public hospital located in Alameda County, Oakland, California. It is operated by the Alameda County Medical Center.It is a Level II trauma center.- History :-External links:*...
in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, where he was assistant pharmacist. There he worked under Dr. Benjamin Black, a former army doctor, "outstanding authorit[y] in hospital administration", and "a very prejudiced person." Black was hesitant to hire Rumford, suspecting him of wanting to "make trouble," and was reluctant to raise his salary. But with the help of influential friends, including Thomas E. Caldecott
Thomas E. Caldecott
Thomas Edwin Caldecott was a politician in Alameda County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of the 20th century. The Caldecott Tunnel which is a key highway link through the Berkeley Hills is named after him....
and county Supervisor Harry Bartell, he received a raise at the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. However, he left the job due to the low pay, and was appointed VD investigator. For about a year, he worked primarily at army bases, such as Camp Knight, where his main responsibility was apprehending carriers of STDs. When not on base, he worked in city clinics.
In 1942, while still working for the state, he purchased a pharmacy in Berkeley. He tried to work both jobs, but eventually devoted his energies to the business.
Public service
In 1942, Berkeley Mayor Laurance L. CrossLaurance L. Cross
Laurance L. Cross was a Presbyterian minister and Mayor of Berkeley, California from 1947 to 1955.Cross was born in Gastonburg, Alabama. His father and two brothers were also pastors. One of his nephews is Frank M...
appointed Rumford to the Emergency Housing Committee, which sought to find housing for wartime laborers. In his capacity as committee member, he was able to push for more integrated housing.
He helped organize the Berkeley Interracial Committee, a citizen's committee whose purpose was to "placate and to welcome some of the people and to ameliorate some of the problems that did arise as a result of the influx" of Southerners
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. The Berkeley Interracial Committee welcomed the Southerners to the community and helped them when they ran into problems. It worked with the Committee on Fair Play to fight the Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
, and helped the City establish a Human Relations Commission.
In 1944, Governor
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
Earl Warren
Earl Warren
Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...
appointed Rumford to the Rent Control Board, a state agency that was part of a federal wartime program to keep wages and rents down.
Political career
In 1948, he made his first attempt for a seat in the AssemblyCalifornia State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
. He had been involved with the Appomattox Club, "perhaps one of the first" African American political organizations in the Bay Area, since 1932, when it supported the policies of the Roosevelt administration. In the primary, he was supported by the club, as well as by a community caucus, and a group of African American ministers. The CIO
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
withheld support, seeing Rumford as not radical enough. He won the primary, but lost the election to Edgar Hurley, who had filed as both a Republican and a Democrat. Rumford took the case to court, which found that his numbers were much higher than expected in certain areas, and ruled that Rumford had been the rightful winner of the election. Major issues in the campaign were the desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
of the National Guard
California National Guard
The California National Guard is the component of the United States National Guard in the U.S. state of California. It comprises both Army and Air National Guard components and is the largest national guard force in the United States with a total authorized strength of 22,900 soldiers and airmen...
and ending discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
in the hiring of teachers. He began his term as representative of the 17th assembly district in January 1949, joining Gus Hawkins of Los Angeles, who was one of the few legislators who pushed legislation that would benefit African Americans.
Rumford was a Prince Hall freemason, but the masons were not involved in the desegregation movement.
In his first year in the state assembly, Rumford succeeded in passing a barring discrimination in the state National Guard. When it reached the state senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
, its chances of passing were slim. But Rumford personally lobbied senators Richard J. Dolwig and Earl Desmond
Earl Desmond
Clayton Earl Desmond was a National Government and Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons...
, and the bill passed the senate as well. In reality, it was not implemented because the members of already-existing black units did not want to lose their titles and ranks. However, no new black units were created, and the Guard was eventually integrated.
In 1953, Rumford invited Governor Earl Warren to address the national convention of Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha is the first Inter-Collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity. It was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its founders are known as the "Seven Jewels". Alpha Phi Alpha developed a model that was used by the many Black Greek Letter Organizations ...
, held in Berkeley. Despite illness and torrential rain, Warren was glad to make the speech and meet those convened.
While Rumford was in the legislature, his Berkeley pharmacy "became an informal headquarters for other emerging politicians, such as future mayor Lionel Wilson
Lionel Wilson
Lionel J. Wilson was an African American political figure and a member of the Democratic Party. He was the first African American mayor of Oakland, California, serving three-terms as mayor of Oakland from 1977 until 1991....
and California Supreme Court Justice Allen Broussard
Allen Broussard
Allen Broussard was an African-American judge who rose to become a justice of the California Supreme Court.He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana on April 13, 1929, the son of Clemire and Eugenia Broussard. At the age of 16, he moved with his family to California...
."
Legislative career
One of Rumford's most important achievements was the passage of the 1959 Fair Employment Practices Act, which outlawed employment discriminationEmployment discrimination
Employment discrimination is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment....
. The bill had originally been introduced by Hawkins in 1945, but it never got out of committee. C. L. Dellums
C. L. Dellums
Cottrell Laurence “C. L.” Dellums was one of the organizers and leaders of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.He was born in Corsicana, Texas on January 3, 1900, and died on December 6, 1989, in Oakland, California...
and other members of the NAACP lobbied in favor of the bill. It passed the assembly in 1955 with the support of Democrats, some of whom were personally opposed to it but succumbed to pressure from within the party, and even a few Republicans, "because they thought it was basically and morally right." It was signed by incoming Governor Pat Brown
Pat Brown
Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown, Sr. was the 32nd Governor of California, serving from 1959 to 1967, and the father of current Governor of California Jerry Brown.-Background:...
in 1959, and the Fair Employment Practices Commission
Fair Employment Practices Commission
The Fair Employment Practices Commission implemented US Executive Order 8802, requiring that companies with government contracts not to discriminate on the basis of race or religion. It was intended to help African Americans and other minorities obtain jobs in the homefront industry...
was set up the same year.
Rumford served on the assembly's Civil Service Commission, which addressed issues of discrimination in government employment, including the California Highway Patrol
California Highway Patrol
The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....
and the State Department of Public Health. He also attempted to secure raises for members of the California State Employees Association.
In 1953, he became chairman of the Public Health Committee. He was part of a delegation that went to Detroit to discuss the issue of air pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
with the automotive industry and their researchers. They convinced the industry to send technicians to testify before a joint committee of the California legislature. He was also sent to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as a Citizen-Ambassador for the State Department to investigate forms of public transportation. The Public Health Committee passed the first air pollution control act in 1955. It also passed some of the first radiation control acts in the country.
Rumford also served on the "Little Hoover Committee," which made recommendations for the reorganization of government. In the 1950s, he was appointed chairman of the Records Management Program for the Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
Committee on Government Reorganization. The Committee investigated corruption in the State Board of Equalization
State Board of Equalization (California)
The State Board of Equalization is a public agency charged with tax administration and fee collection in the state of California in the United States. The areas of authority of the Board fall into four broad areas: sales and use taxes, property taxes, special taxes, and acting as an appellate body...
, which was illegally selling liquor licenses, and sent several of its members to San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men in unincorporated San Quentin, Marin County, California, United States. Opened in July 1852, it is the oldest prison in the state. California's only death row for male inmates, the largest...
.
The Weinberger Committee also successfully passed the Water Resources Act of 1956, which set up the State Water Board.
In 1959, Rumford investigated the health effects of DDT
DDT
DDT is one of the most well-known synthetic insecticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
, and discovered pesticides in milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
supplies.
In 1963, Rumford introduced assembly bill 1240, the Fair Housing Bill. It became known as the Rumford Fair Housing Bill, and its purpose was to outlaw discrimination in housing. The bill was at the top of Governor Brown's legislative agenda, and it had been endorsed by the NAACP and the California Democratic Party. Nonetheless, it faced strong opposition and was amended several times before being passed by a vote of 47 to 24. When it reached the state senate, members of the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
occupied the rotunda of the California State Capitol
California State Capitol
The California State Capitol is home to the government of California. The building houses the bicameral state legislature and the office of the governor....
. Rumford asked them to leave, but they refused. The bill was held up for three months, and the committee didn't hold a hearing on it until the last day of the session. Despite the opposition of the California Real Estate Association, the Apartment House Owners Association, and the Chamber of Commerce, the bill passed the senate and was signed into law by Governor Brown.
Rather than seeking to amend the law, the opposition to the Rumford Fair Housing Act sought to amend the California Constitution
California Constitution
The document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in advance of California attaining U.S. statehood in 1850, was superseded by the current constitution, which...
to permit housing discrimination with California Proposition 14. Though it passed, it was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
.
Senate run
In 1966, Rumford ran for a seat in the California State Senate. The seat had been created after a reapportionmentApportionment
The legal term apportionment means distribution or allotment in proper shares.It is a term used in law in a variety of senses...
that reflected the population growth in Alameda County. According to Rumford, "Mr. Holmdahl and those in the assembly who were doing the reapportioning saw fit not to divide Alameda County into two seats, but to have the two prospective senators running at-large—largely, I believe, because they were fearful that some black might be elected from a portion of the county." Holmdahl, the current senator, announced that he would not run to keep his seat, which eased the tension between Rumford and Petris, the other contender. The two met and agreed that Petris would run for the two-year seat and Rumford the four-year.
Petris's law partner, Edward Fitzsimmons, filed for candidacy, as did Superior Court Judge Victor Wagner and another candidate. The campaign in swing, Petris wrote an endorsement letter for Fitzsimmons, stating that Fitzsimmons would make a better senator. Nonetheless, Rumford soundly defeated all of his opponents in the primary.
In the general election, he faced the poorly-funded Republican candidate, Lewis Sherman. It was the first time that electronic voting machine
Voting machine
Voting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment , that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information...
s were used. A reporter informed him that numerous votes had not been counted. Rumford was told that there were 10,000 ballots that had not been counted because "they wouldn't go through the machine." Since the results showed that he was only 600 votes behind, he requested a recount. Recounting, he noticed that a number of ballots were filled out with the same handwriting. Two deputies agreed, and Rumford halted the recount. U.S. Attorney Cecil Poole asked the FBI to look into the case. After a ten-day investigation, the FBI declared that the case had no merit.
Rumford took the case to Alameda County district attorney Frank Coakley, who found large discrepancies between the registrar's records and those kept by the precincts. He requested that the handwriting expert from the State Identification Bureau examine the handwriting samples, but said they were not the same. Rumford and Coakley wanted a second opinion, so Coakley hired the San Francisco postmaster to examine the samples over Rumford's suggestion to have a UC professor of criminology do it. However, before the postmaster received the ballots, they were sent back to the expert from the State Identification Bureau, where they may have been changed. The postmaster ame to the same conclusion as the other investigators.
Door-to-door studies found that "there had been no purging of the county list for years and that thousands of sample ballots were lodged in the post offices, both in Oakland and Berkeley." Rumford brought the issue to the attention of the Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
, but the body took no action.
In 1970, he was selected to serve on the Grand Jury, and volunteered for the Committee on Courts Enforcement, which looked into the electoral system in Alameda County. While the commission did not open the case of Rumford's senate run, it did make inquiries into the registration process and as to why so many people were ineligible to vote, as well as looking into the reasons for the quantities of ballots at the post office.
Service in Washington
After the election scandal, Caspar Weinberger, who was then Chairman of the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
, invited Rumford to Washington D.C. to help him with the commission's work protecting consumers.
Honors
Rumford was honored at the 1972 World Symposium on Air Pollution Control, which recognized his contributions to the fight against air pollution.In 1980, a segment of the Grove-Shafter Freeway was renamed the William Byron Rumford freeway in his honor.
The postal station at the Oakland federal building is named for him, as is a senior housing community in Berkeley.
His archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
s are housed at the African American Museum and Library
African American Museum and Library at Oakland
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is a museum and non-circulating library dedicated to preserving the history and experiences of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area. It contains an extensive archival collection of such artifacts as diaries, correspondence,...
at the Oakland Public Library
Oakland Public Library
The Oakland Public Library is the public library in Oakland, California. Opened in 1878, the Oakland Public Library currently serves the city of Oakland, along with some neighboring smaller cities including Emeryville and Piedmont. The Oakland Public Library has the largest collection of any...
.