Whether serving as a committee member or chairman, Louis Stokes would become a fixture at many hearings over the course of his career. One of the most notable hearings of his career was the Iran-Contra Affair. He would gain national recognition as a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran when he interrogated Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North in 1987. And as Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Stokes oversaw the investigation of the high level corruption scandal known as ABSCAM, which led to convictions of a senator and six members of the House
Backed by the political muscle of the Twenty-First Congressional District Caucus, which served as his base throughout his political career, Louis Stokes never lost an election. The caucus provided the support structure that he needed, replacing the Democratic political machine. His support within the black community was outstanding, earning endorsements from the Call and Post, Cleveland’s local black newspaper at the time, and the local ministers and church community.
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.
Carl B. Stokes, mayor of Cleveland, with model of the Public Utilities Building, designed by Thomas T.K. Zung Architects, Inc., Architect, completed in 1971.
Carl Stokes was the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 1967-1971. Stokes was the first African American mayor of a major American city and the first African American Democrat in the Ohio State Legislature, where he served three terms from 1962-1967. As mayor, Stokes launched a number of programs to alleviate the problems of urban decay. Chief among these was Cleveland: NOW!, a joint public and private program with plans to raise $177 million in its first two years to revitalize Cleveland. The program was discredited due to the Glenville Shootout in July, 1968. Under Stokes, Cleveland City Council passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Ordinance, and HUD resumed funding projects aiding in the construction of over 3,000 new low- and middle-income housing units. Stokes became a newscaster with NBC television in 1972, and returned to his law practice in Cleveland in 1980. In 1983, Stokes was elected a municipal court judge. The collection consists of speeches, correspondence, datebooks, budgets, lectures, newspaper clippings, publications, telegrams, reports, resumes, agendas, press releases, programs, flyers, certificates, legal documents, newsletters, transcripts, proposals, lists, minutes, and a yearbook.
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 were 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 on Assassinations and in the 1980s was a noted member of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. The collection includes 34 interviews with family and friends, associates and staff, and was conducted to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of Carl Stokes election as mayor and Louis Stokes to Congress.
Many of Stokes’ colleagues and fellow politicians described him as being tough, principled, analytical, and steadfast. He was known as a well-respected leader on Capitol Hill, and an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised in Cleveland and beyond. Stokes secured his legacy by working tirelessly within the system to bring about major changes to equal education and job opportunities for all, while devoting his entire political career to health care reform and abolishing health care disparity. He also was an early advocate of federal government intervention in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The congressman’s daughter, former Cleveland judge Angela Stokes, is shown pictured here in a Plain Dealer article about children from political families. Louis Stokes was proud of his family and considered family one of the pillars of a life fulfilled, the others being meaningful work and friendships. Stokes tried to instill in his children and family the spiritual strength and values that his mother had instilled in him and his brother. He said of his mother “She gave us the grit to overcome our poverty...she insisted to Carl and me that we needed to educate ourselves in order to grasp onto a better life.”
Louis Stokes positioned himself as a political standout by becoming a founding member of the Twenty-First District Caucus, alongside his brother Carl Stokes, Arnold Pinkney, and George Forbes. The Twenty-First District Caucus’ aim was to structure and use independent black political power to benefit its constituents. Most black voters were loyal to the Democratic Party, but the caucus asserted that black voters should not be loyal to either party, but support only those candidates who responded to their community needs. The caucus would only work to elect those working in their best interest, and work just as hard to defeat those who did not.