Louis Stokes (February 23, 1925 – August 18, 2015) was an American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician. He served 15 terms in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

– representing the east side of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

– and was the first African American congressman elected in the state of

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He was one of the Cold War-era chairmen of the

House Intelligence Committee The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), also known as the House Intelligence Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives, currently chaired by Adam Schiff. It is the primary committ ...

, headed the

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is a caucus made up of most African-American members of the United States Congress. Representative Karen Bass from California chaired the caucus from 2019 to 2021; she was succeeded by Representative Joyce ...

, and was the first African American on the

House Appropriations Committee The United States House Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives that is responsible for passing appropriation bills along with its Senate counterpart. The bills passed by the Appropriations Commi ...

Early life

Stokes was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, the son of Louise (née Stone) and Charles Stokes. He and his brother, politician Carl B. Stokes, lived in one of the first federally funded housing projects, the

Outhwaite Homes Outhwaite Homes is a public development under jurisdiction of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority in Cleveland, Ohio. Built in 1935 by architects Edward J. Maier, Travis G. Walsh, and Leo J. Barrett and possibly named after Joseph H. Outhwa ...

. Stokes attended Central High School and later served in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

from 1943 to 1946. After attending

Western Reserve University Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Cleveland State University College of Law is the law school of Cleveland State University, a Public university, public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The school traces its origins to Cleveland Law School (founded in 1897), which merged in ...

on the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

, Stokes began practicing law in Cleveland in 1953. He argued the "

stop and frisk A ''Terry'' stop in the United States allows the police to briefly detain a person based on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity. ("In ''Terry v. Ohio'', 392 U. S. 1, 30 (1968), we held that the police can stop and briefly de ...

" case of ''

Terry v. Ohio ''Terry v. Ohio'', 392 U.S. 1 (1968), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that it is constitutional for American police to "stop and frisk" a person they reasonably suspect to be armed and involved in a crime. Sp ...

'' before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in 1968. Later in 1968, he was elected to the House, representing the 21st District of Ohio on Cleveland's East Side. He shifted to the newly created 11th District, covering much of the same area following a 1992 redistricting. Stokes served 30 years in total, retiring in 1999.

Career

Stokes' tenure in the House of Representatives included service on the House Appropriations Committee, where he was influential in bringing revenue to Cleveland. He was particularly interested in veterans' issues and secured funds for health-care facilities for veterans in Cleveland. In the 1970s, Stokes served as chairman of the

House Select Committee on Assassinations The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The HSCA completed its i ...

, charged with investigating the murders of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

and civil rights leader

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

He served on the House committee that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair. As chairman of the

House Ethics Committee The Committee on Ethics, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Prior to the 112th Congress it was known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The House E ...

, Stokes oversaw the committee's investigation of a corruption scandal known as

ABSCAM Abscam (sometimes written ABSCAM) was an FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress, among others, for bribery and corruption. The two-year investigation initi ...

in 1979–80, which eventually led to convictions of one senator and six House members. Recalling Stokes, U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said: "We were in the midst of a huge ... corruption scandal, and public service was taking a public beating. But Lou Stokes was there as a shining beacon of integrity, of excellence and most important of all for us, of justice." In 1971, he was a founding member of the

In 1992, Stokes ran for president as an Ohio favorite son, winning the delegates from his home district in Ohio, and then, in a minor Democratic convention drama, refused to release the delegate's votes until the Clinton campaign formally asked for them. Following his time in Congress, Stokes became a distinguished visiting professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

. He actively served in this role until the time of his death.

Personal life

Stokes' daughter, Angela, is a former Cleveland Municipal Court judge who served from 1995 through 2015, while another, Lori, is currently Co-anchor of The 5 O'clock News and The 10 O'clock news and Anchor of The 6 O'clock News and former Co-anchor of

Good Day New York ''Good Day New York'' is a morning show airing on WNYW Fox 5 (channel 5), hosted by Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters. It is a Fox owned-and-operated television station in New York City, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Cor ...

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship W ...

Fox 5. His son, Chuck, is also a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

with

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...

in Detroit. Stokes' brother, Carl B. Stokes, was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

mayor of a large American city."Longtime Ohio Congressman Louis Stokes dies at 90"
aol.com, August 19, 2015; retrieved August 20, 2015. Stokes was a cousin of funk and R&B musician

Rick James James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in ...

. Stokes was a

Prince Hall Freemason Prince Hall Freemasonry is a branch of North American Freemasonry for African Americans founded by Prince Hall on September 29, 1784. There are two main branches of Prince Hall Freemasonry: the independent State Prince Hall Grand Lodges, most of ...

, and a member of the Cleveland Alumni chapter of

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

fraternity.

Later life and death

Stokes retired in 2012 as senior counsel in the law firm of

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...

, with offices in Cleveland and Washington. On July 20, 2015, it was reported that Stokes had both

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

and

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

. He died on August 18, 2015, at his home in Cleveland from the diseases at the age of 90. He was interred at

Lake View Cemetery Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...

in Cleveland.

Legacy

The

Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) is a governmental organization responsible for the ownership and management of low-income housing property in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The organization was founded in 1933, making it the first hou ...

opened the Louis Stokes Museum on September 13, 2007. This museum houses Stokes memorabilia, video interviews, miscellaneous video footage, awards and a written history about Stokes and his rise to prominence. The museum is located at

, 4302 Quincy Avenue. From 2006 to 2008, the

Western Reserve Historical Society The Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) is a historical society in Cleveland, Ohio. The society operates the Cleveland History Center, a collection of museums in University Circle. The society was founded in 1867, making it the oldest cul ...

opened an exhibition on the lives of Congressman Stokes and his brother titled "Carl and Louis Stokes: From the Projects to Politics". The exhibit uses photographs, manuscript collections, and personal items to showcase Louis Stokes' rise from the Outhwaite homes, his legal career, and his Congressional service. The former Congressman was inducted into the Karamu House Hall of Fame in 2007 for his contributions to the continued legacy of Cleveland's black settlement house and theatre. Many buildings throughout the country have been named in Stokes honor including:

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

's medical library, the

Cleveland Public Library Cleveland Public Library, located in Cleveland, Ohio, operates the Main Library on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 27 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and the Ohio Library for the ...

's main building expansion, and the GCRTA's Windermere station

Louis Stokes Station at Windermere Louis Stokes Station at Windermere is a rapid transit station on the RTA Red Line in East Cleveland, Ohio. It is located on the northwest side of Euclid Avenue ( U.S. Routes 6 and 20) between Bryn Mawr and Doan Roads. It is the eastern termin ...

. The greater Cleveland area Veteran's hospital was renamed the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Building 50 on the

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

is named the Louis Stokes Laboratories. Congressman Stokes' alma mater, Case Western Reserve University, offers the Louis Stokes Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Scholarship worth full tuition to an incoming first-year or transfer undergraduate student. It is intended to help economically and educationally disadvantaged students attain an education at the school.

Autobiography

* Louis Stokes with David Chanoff (2016): The Gentleman from Ohio. (Foreword by Congressman John Lewis). Trillium Books, The Ohio State University Press.

References

External links

History.house.gov

Western Reserve Historical Society's website about the lives of Louis and Carl Stokes

Collections''Stokes: An American Dream''
on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

World channel WORLD Channel, also branded as WORLD, is an American digital multicast public television network owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. It is distributed by American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunicatio ...

* The National Science Foundation has funded "Louis Stokes Alliances" to support post-secondary education of minority students. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Louis 1925 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American politicians African-American lawyers African-American members of the United States House of Representatives African-American United States Army personnel African-American people in Ohio politics American Freemasons American Prince Hall Freemasons United States Army personnel of World War II Case Western Reserve University alumni Cleveland–Marshall College of Law alumni Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Deaths from cancer in Ohio Deaths from lung cancer Ohio lawyers Lawyers from Cleveland United States Army soldiers Candidates in the 1992 United States presidential election 20th-century American lawyers Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American people African Americans in World War II