Louis Stokes was born on February 23, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his younger brother Carl were the only children to his widowed mother, who worked as domestic cleaning houses. Stokes and his brother had a very poor upbringing, and didn’t have many opportunities as children. After high school Louis worked as a shoe shiner, a machine operator, a dishwasher, and a clothing salesman, and then soon after he was drafted into the Army. Growing up in Cleveland segregation and inequality had never really made an impression on Louis Stokes until he joined the Army. It was during his service in the military that he began to realize that people thought he was inferior because of the color of his skin, and also when he began to understand the impact an education could have on changing his life, and the life of many others.