Pasadena Now, Published : Monday, September 23, 2019 | 5:12 AM

It was an afternoon of praise and accolades for longtime Pasadena-area activist Dale Gronemeier Saturday as more than a hundred friends and community leaders, the most active of local activists among them, honored him at the Neighborhood Unitarian Church for his 60 years of championing civil rights.
Gronemeier, who formerly practiced law in Eagle Rock, resided in Sierra Madre, and fought many court battles in Pasadena, retired and left the region last year for San Antonio, Texas, to “live in a home with a view of the lake,” he said.
At the lifetime achievement award ceremony organized by Pasadenans Organizing for Progress (POP!), Congresswoman Judy Chu called Gronemeier “a force of nature” for his long history.
“Dale has been one of the most steadfast leaders in the community,” said Councilmember John Kennedy, “representing those who are underserved or underrepresented, and his voice has been consistent, whether its been fighting for a livable wage or overturning the discriminatory election that existed in City of Pasadena.”
A host of local leaders attended the event. State Senator Anthony Portantino, former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole and current Mayor Terry Tornek, Councilmembers Kennedy and Andy Wilson, and a slew of faces often seen at Council meetings over the years.
“They say, ‘Find a good fight and get into it,” said Portantino, “and that’s what Dale did. He is strong and sophisticated, and he makes us all do better.”
Retired Judge Leonard Edwards recalled an evening in Mississippi in 1964, when he and a young Gronemeier stayed up late in the home of legendary civil rights activist Fanny Lou Hamer. Her life had been threatened with assassination by the KKK. Gronemeier and Edwards had joined up with Hamer in the Mississippi Freedom summer trying to register African American voters.
“Dale had this shotgun,” he said, “and he told me, “We will defend ourselves with this.” Leonard smiled as he remembered, “I asked him if I could just hide behind the couch as he manned the front line.”
Fortunately, there was no use for the weapon as Hamer was safely escorted out of town the next morning.
But many noted that the incident was indicative of Gronemeier’s eagerness to man the front lines of any battle.
Gronemeier moved to Pasadena in 1975. He joined the American Civil Liberties Union legal team that challenged at-large elections, which led, eventually, to a successful overturning of the discriminatory practice at the ballot box.
In the late 1980s, he went after restrictive regulations at Plaza Pasadena and in the 1990s targeted racial discrimination at King’s Villages.
Most recently he worked on the livable wage movement which resulted in the passage of Pasadena’s minimum wage ordinance, and on police reforms in Pasadena, calling for an independent police auditor.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said an emotional Gronemeier, once he took the dais. “I love you all.”

ColoradoBlvd.net POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

Dale Gronemeier is a long-time progressive activist and lawyer in the Pasadena area.By Christopher Nyerges
Gronemeier, who is 80 years old and blessed with good health, said he is winding down his legal practice, with his last trial scheduled for next summer.
According to Gronemeier, “My most important contribution has been progressive coalition-building in Pasadena. The lawsuit that challenged ‘at-large elections’ built a broad coalition of 13 plaintiff organizations that included religious, political, and racial-ethnic organizations.
Gronemeier adds:
Most recently, the coalition of religious, political, religious-ethnic, labor, and immigrant organizations that successfully fought the campaign for a $15/hour minimum wage in Pasadena was the broadest Pasadena progressive coalition since the New Deal era.
Early yearsGronemeier’s first significant progressive activism was in 1959, when, as an Illinois State University student body president, he wrote a resolution condemning loyalty oaths which was then unanimously adopted by the National Student Association.
In the period of 1960-61, when he was a graduate student at Northwestern University, Gronemeier organized a student forum which brought progressive speakers to campus.
Serving in the army from 1962-63, Gronemeier organized opposition to racism at Fort Knox.  In the summer of 1964, he worked along with other members of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee  to register voters in the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
Gronemeier married Temetra Smith in 1966. Of note, their interracial marriage was illegal in 16 states at that time. They first met in a freshman political science class in 1956 and both were interscholastic debaters at ISU. Smith was the President of the campus chapter of the NAACP.
He taught half-time at UC Berkeley from 1967-69 while working towards a Ph.D. in Rhetoric. After writing a paper titled, Racial Discrimination at UC Berkeley, his teaching position was not renewed, and he did not complete the Ph.D.
After UC Berkeley fired Gronemeier, he and his wife both taught three years in the Northern Illinois University (NIU) Speech Department and worked organizing students and faculty on civil rights, anti-war, and union issues. Later in 1972, NIU did not renew the contracts of either Gronemeier or his wife, despite a demonstration by several thousand students and faculty supporting them.
After Gronemeier received his JD from the University of Illinois in 1975, the Gronemeiers moved to the Pasadena area.
Pasadena activismIn 1979, after Pasadena’s at-large elections caused losses to progressive candidates for City Council Lois Richard and Morris Fischer, Gronemeier headed an ACLU legal team that challenged the at-large election system on behalf of 13 Pasadena community organizations. The lawsuit was the catalyst leading to the issue being put to the voters and passing.
From 1985-1989, Gronemeier successfully challenged restrictive regulations at the Plaza Pasadena on behalf of community groups seeking to gather signatures.
In the mid-1990s, the City of Pasadena hired Gronemeier’s firm to challenge racial discrimination at King’s Villages.
After the death of Kendrec McDade, Gronemeier became active in the Coalition for Increased Civilian Oversight of Pasadena Police (CICOPP) calling for the hiring of an Independent Police Auditor.
Gronemeier was also a founding member of the Pasadenans for a Livable Wage, which successfully lobbied for Pasadena’s Minimum Wage Ordinance and then was a founding board member and executive committee member of its successor – Pasadenans Organizing for Progress (POP).
> Dale Gronemeier will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award Celebration on Saturday, September 21, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church at 301 N. Orange Grove in Pasadena.

Pasadena Now, STAFF REPORT, Published : Wednesday, September 18, 2019 | 4:59 AM
 Civil rights attorney Dale Gronemeier, as easily identifiable by his iconic cap, thick-rimmed black glasses and goatee as by his zeal for righting wrongs, is returning to Pasadena this weekend for a double-header of events focused specifically on the legacy he left behind upon moving to Texas.
Gronemeier’s indefatigable efforts to hold police and local government officials accountable for their conduct held sway over Pasadena and Altadena for decades before he retired last year.
Not only did Gronemeier cast a giant (and expensive) shadow over many local governmental agencies, but his legacy includes a cadre of local civil rights groups he helped forge and fund by lawyer’s fees sometimes earned from the very agencies the groups were dedicated to changing.
In May 2017 Gronemeier and his law partner held a press conference to hand out $30,000 from a settlement they’d won from Pasadena Unified.
The pair handed out checks to representatives of nearly a dozen progressive Pasadena causes, including POP!, Pasadenans Organizing for Progress.
“He’s a remarkable man,” said POP! spokesman Ed Washatka. “By his early twenties he’d found his moral anchor in civil liberties and civil rights and he never veered from that. Some people come to activism late in life, some earlier and then move onto other things. But his commitment is over 60 years long.”
Pasadenans Organizing for Progress (POP) has invited Gronemeier to address its next Progressive Discussion Group at DuPars Sept. 20, before honoring him with a lifetime achievement award at Neighborhood Church on Sept. 21.
An avatar of local civic rights, Gronemeier resided in Sierra Madre, practiced in Eagle Rock, and worked tirelessly on cases and causes which aroused his passion. Approaching 80, he retired in 2018 and moved to Texas.
With his departure, it stands to reason that such groups don’t have the same kind of money flowing into their coffers, nor Gronemeier as an effective mouthpiece. The heat on local agencies to remain publicly accountable has lowered as a result, and no voice or funding fountainhead has yet emerged to replace Gronemeier.
“I haven’t been following Pasadena real closely any longer,” he told Pasadena Now on Tuesday. “I really haven’t been active in Pasadena politics.”
Since moving, Gronemeier said he has become disconnected from the grassroots approach to politics that he passionately engaged in and engendered in others.
“If you’re not there, you’re no longer part of the community,” he said. “I remain interested in what happens, in helping build POP!, but if you’re not participating, it’s sort of pontificating to comment on the issues being dealt with.”
Gronemeier moved to Pasadena in 1975. He joined the American Civil Liberties Union legal team that challenged at-large elections, which led, eventually, to a successful overturning of the discriminatory practice at the ballot box.
In the late 1980s, he went after restrictive regulations at Plaza Pasadena and in the 1990s targeted racial discrimination at King’s Villages, on behalf of the City. The breadth of his activism widened further with his involvement in the Coalition for Increased Civilian Oversight of Pasadena Police.
Livable wage, POP!, open government claims, and $500,000 to area progressive groups from fee awards and such, are Pasadena-related highlights, but Gronemeier’s pedigree reaches back to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer when he registered black voters and resided with civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville, Mississippi.
“Dale has a very long history of community and social involvement that has benefited many people beyond Pasadena,” said Pasadena Chief of Police John Perez. “Dale has been a challenge at times, but his care and compassion for all people cannot be argued. I wish him well and I’ve appreciated the insight and guidance he has provided at times. He deserves time for travel and recreation.”
Some civic officials likely felt relief at his departure, and that raises the question of what civic life in Pasadena is like without Gronemeier raising hackles.
“Quieter,” laughed Jon Fuhrman, Executive Director of local advocacy group ACT, “Maybe a tad more boring. I think he has left a tradition and a structure so that much of the work that he was doing will be carried on by others.”
“Without him we are settling in, making adjustments,” said Washatka of the goings-on at POP!. “I think there’s a forward momentum that lasts when somebody leaves office.”
“The POP! board members and co-chairs, constantly say, ‘What would Dale do?’ or ‘We got to get on it,’ because he was always urging us to be timely, but to reflect on what we were about to say. I learned a hell of a lot from him.”
Rabbi Marv Gross, a member of POP!, said, “I think for the past nine months, those of us who have worked with Dale, and have been inspired by his example, have tried to move forward on progressive issues that were important to him and to us as well.
“His was a personal example of integrity and commitment that is quite unusual,” said Gross.
Dick Price, the editor of L.A. Progressive and a prime protagonist at the Pasadena-Foothills Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there’s a void that can’t be filled.
“Don’t think we’ll see the likes of him again, he just really devoted his life to this kind of work, he was quite an admirable man.”
“I’ve been heavily involved in the ACLU Pasadena chapter and we frequently worked with Dale on police practices issues, criminal justice, civil rights, and he was a leading light in the progressive legal community,” said Price. “He was a big help to lots of people. A tireless worker and really a guiding light.”
On Friday, Gronemeier will address The Progressive Discussion Group during their meeting from 9 am. to 10 a.m. at Dupar’s, 214 South Lake Street. The meeting is open to anyone wanting to attend. DuPar’s issues separate checks to attendees, so you can have coffee, breakfast, or just thoughtfully listen to Gronemeier’s remarks.
On Saturday, Pasadenans Organizing for Progress will be hosting a Lifetime Achievement Award Celebration and Fundraiser honoring Gronemeier will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Boulevard, Pasadena. For tickets click here. Or, you can purchase tickets at the door.

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