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Title: |
Stokes Oral History Collection |
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Repository: |
Western Reserve Historical Society
Phone: 216-721-5722 http://www.wrhs.org |
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Creator: |
Cuyahoga Community College, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland State University |
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Dates: |
2017 |
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Quantity: |
0.81 linear feet (3 containers) |
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Abstract: |
Carl Stokes, and his brother Louis, were groundbreaking African-American politicians from Cleveland, Ohio. Carl Stokes became the first black mayor of a major U.S. city when elected in 1967. Louis Stokes was the first African-American congressman from Ohio when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968, a position he held for 15 consecutive terms. During Carl Stokes' two mayoral terms, city hall jobs were opened to blacks and women, and a number of urban renewal projects initiated. Between 1983 and 1994 Carl Stokes served as municipal judge, and in 1994 was appointed by President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Seychelles. Louis Stokes began his career as a civil rights attorney and helped challenge the Ohio redistricting in 1965 that fragmented African-American voting strength. In 1967, Louis Stokes argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Terry v. Ohio case, also known as the "stop-and-frisk" case. In the 1970s, Louis Stokes served as chair of the House Select Committee on Assassinations and in the 1980s was a noted member of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. The interviews were conducted during 2017 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Carl Stokes' election as mayor and the election of Louis Stokes to Congress. The collection includes video recordings of 38 individuals, transcripts, interview release forms, and protocols. |
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Identification: |
MS 5416 |
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Location: |
closed stacks |
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Language: |
The records are in English |
Carl Stokes (1927-1996) became the first black mayor of a major United States city when he was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in November, 1967. He later became a news anchorman, judge, and a United States Ambassador. He was born in Cleveland to Charles Stokes, a laundry worker who died when Carl was two years old, and Louise (Stone) Stokes, a cleaning woman who then raised Carl and his brother Louis in Cleveland's first federally funded housing project for the poor, Outhwaite. Although a good student, Stokes dropped out of high school in 1944, worked briefly at Thompson Products, then joined the United States Army at age 18. After his discharge in 1946, Stokes returned to Cleveland and earned his high school diploma in 1947. He then attended several colleges before earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1954. He graduated from Cleveland-Marshall Law School in 1956 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1957. For four years he served as assistant prosecutor and became partner in the law firm of Stokes, Stokes, Character, and Terry, continuing that practice into his political career.
Carl Stokes was elected the first black Democrat to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962. He served three terms and narrowly lost a bid for mayor of Cleveland in 1965. His victory two years later drew national attention. Able to mobilize both black and white voters, he defeated Seth Taft, the grandson of a former U.S. president, with a 50.5 majority. He was reelected in 1969. During his two terms as mayor, Stokes opened city hall jobs to blacks and women, and introduced a number of urban revitalization programs. Choosing not to run for a third term in 1971, Stokes lectured around the country, then in 1972 became the first black anchorman in New York City when he took a job with television station WNBC. He returned to Cleveland in 1980 and began serving as general legal counsel for the United Auto Workers Union. From 1983 to 1994 he served as municipal judge in Cleveland. President Clinton then appointed him United States Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles. He was awarded 12 honorary degrees, numerous civic awards, and represented the United States on numerous goodwill trips abroad by request of the White House. In 1970, the National League of Cities voted him its first black president-elect.
Carl Stokes married Shirley Edwards in 1958. They were divorced in 1973. In 1981, he married Raija Kostadinov, whom he divorced in 1993 and remarried in 1996. He had three children from his first marriage: Carl Jr., Cordi, and Cordell, and a daughter, Cynthia, and stepson, Sasha Kostadinov, from his second marriage. He was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus while serving as Ambassador to the Seychelles and placed on medical leave. He returned to Cleveland and died at the Cleveland Clinic on April 3, 1996.
Louis Stokes (1925-2015) was a prominent attorney and became the first African-American congressman from Ohio when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1968, a position he held for 15 consecutive terms. His parents, Charles Stokes and Louise (Stone) Stokes were from separate cities in Georgia, but met when they moved to Cleveland during the Great Migration.
A product of Cleveland public schools, Louis served in the U.S. Army from 1943-1946. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, he attended Western Reserve College from 1946-1948 and received his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall Law School in 1953. Louis met his wife, Jeanette (Jay) Francis, and they married on August 21, 1960 raising four children: Shelly, Louis C., Angela, and Lorene.
Stokes established a thriving law practice in Cleveland with his brother, Carl. He often worked with many high-profile clients such as football player and actor Jim Brown. However, in the 1960s Stokes began to garner a reputation as a formidable civil rights attorney--often taking cases pro-bono to defend activists. He also became heavily involved in the Cleveland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On behalf of the NAACP, he helped challenge the Ohio redistricting in 1965 that fragmented African American voting strength. In 1967, Stokes made an oral argument before the U.S. Supreme court in the Terry v. Ohio case. Known popularly as the "stop-and-frisk" case, Terry v. Ohio set the precedent for police search and seizure procedures.
Utilizing his brother's political network, Louis was elected in 1968 as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 21st district of Ohio, becoming the first African-American congressman in Ohio. When the district was eliminated in 1993, Stokes moved to the 11th district until 1999 when he retired. During his 30 combined years in the House, Stokes earned a seat on the influential Appropriations Committee, which oversees all federal funding spending bills. In the 1970s, he served as chair on the select Committee of Assassinations and in the 1980s Reagan era served notably as a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.
Stokes retired in 1999 and resumed practicing law. He also took on the role as distinguished visiting professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. In July 2015 he was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer. He died nearly a month later on August 18, 2015. He was 90. Of his passing, President Barack Obama issued an official statement noting: "Growing up in Depression-era Cleveland with his mother and brother Carl, Lou triumphed over hardship to become a passionate voice for those less fortunate....Lou leaves behind an indelible legacy in the countless generations of young leaders that he inspired, and he will be sorely missed."
Click
here for the Encyclopedia of Cleveland entry for
Carl Stokes.
Click
here for the Encyclopedia of Cleveland entry for
Louis Stokes.
The Stokes Oral History Collection, 2017, consists primarily of video recordings, transcripts, and administrative documents related to 35 oral history interviews.
The collection will be of interest to researchers interested in the social and political history of Cleveland, Ohio, particularly the role of African-Americans and minorities during the 1960s through 1990s in the city's development as well as national affairs. Those interested specifically in the careers of Carl and Louis Stokes will also find this collection of note. Political science students will find information and insight into municipal, state, and national politics, campaigns, and elections. Urban planning students will be interested in discussions related to urban renewal projects. Researchers of civil rights will find accounts and opinions from many of the interviews of interest. Large portions of the interviews center around perspectives from friends, relatives, colleagues, and employees of the Stoke brothers, their relationships with both the interviewees as well as people within the region and nation. There are discussions related to the brothers' legal and philanthropic activities and endeavors. The interviewees, themselves, relate individual backgrounds related to work experiences, race relations, and local conditions in the city of Cleveland or Washington, DC.
Overall, the collection is an excellent source of first-hand accounts related to the lives of two influential Clevelanders.
Access to the electronic files on the original hard drive is restricted. Please contact the Reference Supervisor for information about obtaining an access copy of electronic files stored on the hard drive.
Related Material: Related MaterialThe researcher should also consult
MS 4370, Carl Stokes Papers;
MS 4800 Carl Stokes Papers, Series II;
MS 5305, Carl Stokes Scrapbooks;
MS 5152, Louis Stokes Scrapbooks.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Electronic files, including MS Word Documents, MP3 audio and MP4 video formatted recordings, are stored on a portable hard drive. Portable hard drive is formatted for PC. Access to the hard drive is via USB 3.0 cable.
[Container ___, Folder ___] MS 5416 Stokes Oral History Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of the Cuyahoga Community College in 2018. The Stokes Oral History project was a collaboration between Cuyahoga Community College, Western Reserve Historical Society, and Cleveland State University: Center for Public History & Digital Humanities Program.
Processed by Robert Suriano in 2018.The Stokes Oral History project was a collaboration between Cuyahoga Community College, Western Reserve Historical Society, and Cleveland State University: Center for Public History & Digital Humanities Program, with generous support from the Cleveland Foundation and Ohio Humanities Council.