23 Facts About Carl Stokes

1. Carl Stokes died at the Cleveland Clinic on April 3, 1996 of complications related to his cancer.

2. Carl Stokes was reelected in 1969, but did not run in 1971.

3. Carl Stokes became a strong supporter of Civil Rights and welfare issues.

4. Carl Stokes served as a prosecuting attorney until 1962, when he joined his brother, Louis Stokes, in establishing the law firm Stokes, Stokes, Character, and Terry.

5. Carl Stokes received a discharge after two years in the Army.

6. Carl Stokes was born on June 2, 1927, in Cleveland, Ohio.

7. Carl Stokes served until 1965 when he resigned to concentrate on running for Mayor of Cleveland.

8. Carl Stokes transferred to Western Reserve University and then the University of Minnesota, from which he received his BA in 1955.

9. Carl Stokes began his administration with the high hopes of most of Cleveland behind him.

10. In 1965, in this climate, Carl Stokes decided to run for mayor.

11. In 1938, when Carl Stokes was 11, the family moved into a new housing project.

12. Carl Stokes took full advantage of the facilities, learning to box and play ping pong.

13. Carl Stokes was born in 1927 in Central, Ohio, a poor, predominantly black Cleveland neighborhood.

14. Carl Stokes gained national recognition on November 13, 1967, when he was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first black ever elected to that office in a major American city.

15. In 1994, Carl Stokes served in the Clinton Administration as US Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles, a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa.

16. Carl Stokes was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962 and was twice reelected.

17. Carl Stokes served 15 terms in office, which included heading the Congressional Black Caucus, and becoming the first Black member of the House Appropriations Committee.

18. Carl Stokes served in the US Army during World War II and after being discharged, he entered and graduated from Western Reserve University before going on to obtain his Doctor of Law degree from the Cleveland Marshall Law School at Cleveland State University.

19. Carl Stokes was awarded 12 honorary degrees, numerous civic awards, and represented the United States on numerous goodwill trips abroad by request of the White House.

20. Carl Stokes feuded with City Council and the Police Department for most of his tenure.

21. Carl Stokes narrowly lost a bid for mayor of Cleveland in 1965.

22. Carl Stokes graduated from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1956 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1957.

23. Carl Stokes was born in Cleveland, the son of Louise and Charles Stokes, a laundryman who died when Carl was three years old.