[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 15 (Friday, February 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1131-S1132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STOKES COURTHOUSE

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I introduced yesterday legislation to 
honor the late Carl Stokes.
  Carl Stokes was born on the east side of Cleveland in 1927. He lost 
his father at the age of 2. When he was young, his family was so poor 
that Carl, his mother, and his brother Louis--now our distinguished 
colleague in the House of Representatives--had to sleep in the same 
bed.
  In 1962, Carl Stokes was elected to the Ohio House of 
Representatives--the first African-American to serve as a Democrat in 
our State legislature.

[[Page S1132]]

  In 1967, he was elected mayor of Cleveland--the first African-
American ever to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
  He served two terms as mayor, and in his second term, he became the 
first African-American to serve as an officer of the National League of 
Cities.
  Carl Stokes later became a television news anchor in New York City, 
and a municipal judge in Cleveland. In 1994, President Clinton named 
him United States Ambassador to the Seychelles.
  The Honorable Carl Stokes had a long and distinguished career before 
his untimely passing in April of last year. In his eulogy for Mayor 
Stokes, the Reverend Jesse Jackson called him ``a dream maker and an 
odds buster.''
  That's exactly right. Carl Stokes was a man who made a difference. 
The people of Ohio will always remember him as a man of great courage 
and personal character.
  For this reason, I am introducing legislation today to name the new 
Federal courthouse in Cleveland after this truly honorable man.

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