Ronald Dellums was an openly socialist politician from Northern California who served on the Berkeley City Council from 1967–70 before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was the representative for California’s 9th district from 1971–88. During his years as a local and national politician, Dellums staunchly opposed the involvement of the U.S. government in Vietnam and U.S. intervention in other South Asian, African, and Latin American countries on the basis of fighting communism. He was an outspoken critic of U.S. support for the Brazilian dictatorship and proposed an amendment to cut off aid to Brazil’s government in response to the Inter-American Commission on Human Right’s documentation of government-perpetuated human rights abuses.

Read excerpts from the congressional record of speeches Dellums gave about human rights in Brazil.