For all of his accomplishments — and there are many — the late Democratic Congressman Louis Stokes of Ohio didn’t go on and on with his children about the important things he was doing up on Capitol Hill.
“He didn’t come home and talk a lot about it,” his son, Chuck Stokes, told the AFRO. “He just kept on working.”
The life of the late Louis Stokes was celebrated at Howard University. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Howard University celebrated the 16th anniversary of the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library on March 31, and as part of the festivities, three of Stokes’ four children offered another take on their father with personal anecdotes and memories for a taped broadcast by the HBCU.
Following the show, they signed his autobiography, The Gentleman from Ohio: Reflections on the Legacy of U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes. Stokes spent 30 years in Congress serving a majority Black constituency in Cleveland before he stepped down in 1999. He completed the book in 2015, a few weeks before he died at the age of 90. The book was published last year.
Stokes, the first Black man to serve in Congress from Ohio, came from very humble beginnings. His father, Charles Stokes, died when Stokes was very young. He was raised in public housing and his mother, Louise, earned money working as a domestic for wealthy Whites. She wanted something better for Stokes and his brother Carl Stokes and stressed the importance of education early on.
“She told my father and my Uncle Carl, you know, ‘Learn. Get all the education that you can so that you get something in our head so that you don’t have to work with your hands and be on your knees’ the way she did,” Chuck Stokes said.
He fought in a segregated unit during World War II and used the G.I. Bill to attend Western Reserve University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, determined to reach new heights regardless of his economic background. Later on, he opened a law firm in Cleveland with his brother, Carl, and became a prominent attorney. In 1968, Louis Stokes argued against stop-and-frisk in Terry v. Ohio before the Supreme Court. His daughter, Shelley Stokes-Hammond, said her father often practiced his legal arguments in the bathroom mirror.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Stokes spearheaded initiatives that secured funding for the research, treatment and prevention of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and AIDS — ailments that disproportionately affect people of color.
Stokes secured money for the library at Howard that bears his name and for healthcare facilities for Cleveland veterans. He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and played a major role in some of America’s biggest moments.
Stokes chaired the committee that investigated the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy in the 1970s. As chairman of the House Ethics Committee, he managed its investigation of the Abscam corruption scandal that convicted six House members and one senator. Stokes also was a member of a House committee that investigated the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s.
Stokes lived a life of advocacy and encouraged his children to follow their dreams. Chuck Stokes and Lori Stokes are journalists at WABC-TV in New York and WXYZ-TV in Detroit respectively. Stokes-Hammond serves on the Maryland Commission on African American History & Culture. Angela Stokes is a municipal court judge in Cleveland.
No matter what, their father reminded them to be nice and not to talk too much about themselves, Lori Stokes said.
“And that was who he was also,” she said. “He was very humble, he was very sweet, he was very patient and he really got such joy from conversing with people of all walks of life.”