Revereand Charles Lucas, Jr., was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. He is the pastor of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the 1970s, Rev. Lucas was president of the Cleveland Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
George L. Forbes was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He has owned a law firm in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1971. He was a city councilman during 1963-1989 and served as the first black council president during his last eighteen years in office. Mr. Forbes was elected president of the Cleveland NAACP in 1992 and was appointed to the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation in 1995.
Dee Perry spent 40 years as a Cleveland radio broadcaster. She hosted programs on Cleveland's public radio station, WCPN, where she was a leader in promoting the Arts. She has conducted more than 10,000 interviews and was the lead interviewer for the Stokes Oral History Project.
Angela Stokes is the daughter of Louis Stokes and a graduate of the University of Maryland and Howard University Law School. She was Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio, and a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge for twenty years.
Robert Madison was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1923. He was a decorated soldier during World War II and graduated from Western Reserve University and Harvard. Mr. Madison was the first African American to become a registered architect in the state of Ohio. He opened his firm in Cleveland in 1954 and has worked on major projects locally and worldwide. He served on Carl Stokes initial mayoral election campaign as a speech writer.
Richard Peery is a retired reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He is also a former reporter for the Call and Post newspaper. Raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he has lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for 40 years, and served as president of the Writer's Guild union at the Plain Dealer, and has continued his activism in the community.
Walter Beach III was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1933. Before attending college, Beach served in the U.S. Air force, spending three years in Germany as a cryptographer. He graduated from Central Michigan University and played defensive back in both the Canadian and National Football Leagues, including with the the Cleveland Browns during the team's 1964 Championship season. He served as the director for Countil for Youth Opportunities during Carl Stokes' mayoral administration. He is a lawyer and author.
Leon Bibb's family moved to Cleveland from Alabama, when he was a child. He graduated from Glenville High School. After graduating from Bowing Green State University, his career in journalism was interrupted by the Vietnam War, where he received a Bronze Star for his service under fire. He worked as a television reporter in Toledo and Columbus before returning to Cleveland in 1979 to become an anchor and reporter at WKYC Channel 3. He retired in 2017.
Lori Stokes is the youngest child of Louis Stokes. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Howard University. She has worked in television journalism since 1986, reporting for stations in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland. She also worked at MSNBC and is currently a morning television anchor in New York City.
Louis "Chuck" Stokes is the only sone of Louis Stokes. He began his career as a sports writer for the Washington Post. For over 30 years he has been the editorial/public affairs moderator for news and public affairs show "Spotlight on the News" for WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.
Steven Bullock was born in Halifax County, North Carolina, the grandson of a former slave. He was the CEO of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross from 1982 and was named acting president of the national agency for 1999. He also served on a number of boards of directors, including the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, the Cleveland Campaign, and Leadership Cleveland. In 2001, Bullock founded the Bullock Group, a management consulting company for non-profit and public institutions.
Betty Pinkney and her husband, Arnold, were long time advocates for Carl and Louis Stokes. Arnold helped with Louis Stoke's election to Congress and was a major strategist for the Democratic party. Arnold Pinkney, an insurance executive, also ran Jesse Jackson's national campaign for president in 1984.
Shelley Stokes-Hammond is the oldest daughter of Louis Stokes. She is a graduate of Ohio University and Goucher College. She is a historic preservationist, author, and public relations manager at Howard University.
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.