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.
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.
Shown shortly after winning his first election, Louis Stokes is shown with his wife Jay and their four children. Stokes was very proud of his family, and said of his of his wife and of their 55 years of marriage “I can hardly believe my good fortune...my children, my inspirational wife…all I can say is that I have been more than fortunate; I have been blessed.” From r to l: Jay, Lori, Louis Sr., Shelley, Chuckie, and Angela.
16mm black and white silent film, undated, showing an unknown wedding, Wilkins School of Cosmetology graduation at Phillis Wheatley Building, and church service at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church.
After leaving the army he was determined to become a lawyer and defend the rights of those who had been taken advantage of by the justice system. He attended Western Reserve University and Cleveland Marshall College of Law, and began practicing law in 1953. In 1962 Louis’s brother Carl joined him at his law firm Stokes, Stokes, Character, and Terry. In 1967 Stokes argued the historic case Terry v. Ohio, commonly known as the “Stop-and-Frisk“ case, in front of the Supreme Court. This case set a precedent for police search and seizure procedures, and a number of Supreme Court cases that followed. By the time he ran for Congress in 1968, Louis Stokes was the most prominent civil rights lawyer in Cleveland
Marcia L. Fudge was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and served as Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones during her first term. Ms. Fudge was mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, from 2000 until elected to Congress in 2008. She chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2013 until 2015.
Rev. Samuel Tidmore, IV, was an aide to Louis Stokes during his early years in Congress. Rev. Tidmore was born in Decatur, Illinois, in 1938, but moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as a child. He graduated from John Adams High School and attended the Ohio State University. He is a former NFL linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns in 1962 and 1963. He later became a business consultant and an owner of fast food franchises. During the late 1970s, he served as chapter vice president of the Cleveland chapter of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), a project begun by Rev. Jesse Jackson.
When Stokes took office in 1969 there was little black representation in politics, but the civil rights movement had helped to give way to the emergence of black political power. Stokes realized that as a black congressman he couldn’t serve the same way as white representatives could, he felt he had an obligation to represent African Americans everywhere. So not long after his election, Stokes and several other black congressmen and women began forming the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The CBC which still exists today, mission was, and still is, to challenge the status quo and leverage its political force to advocate and influence issues of special concern that affected black communities nationwide.
Congressman Louis Stokes never lost an election; he was elected fifteen times and served for 30 years. For three decades the spotlight shined on Louis Stokes, Ohio’s first black congressman. He has said that his goal was to set a standard of hard work, ethics, and good character so that those who followed in his footsteps would need to demonstrate a higher level of service to their constituents. As a congressman Louis Stokes accomplished this and much more by making significant achievements in health care, education and employment, and racial injustice that continue to effect voters today
As chairman of the Intelligence Committee Louis Stokes was struck by the lack of diversity within the intelligence community, he remarked,” They were all white, a few females, and zero minorities.” He felt embarrassed by it, which led him to spearhead a program that recruited minority and disadvantaged students into the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The program was a huge success, and Stokes continued his commitment to support programs to engage minorities in science, engineering in math right here in Cleveland. Stokes is shown here discussing the NASA Science Engineering Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA), a project that was designed to increase participation and retention of underrepresented youth in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
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.