[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 3 (Thursday, January 29, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S201-S202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING CONGRESSMAN LOUIS STOKES

  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to commemorate an 
important event in the history of my State, the State of Ohio, and also 
the history of this Congress. Over the just-concluded recess, my good 
friend, Congressman Lou Stokes, announced he will retire at the end of 
this Congress. Lou Stokes will retire after 30 years representing the 
people of his Cleveland area district.
  Mr. President, when I first entered the House of Representatives in 
1983, Louis Stokes had already been there for 14 years--14 years 
building friendships and developing a reputation as a powerful and 
effective leader.
  Lou Stokes is a leader. Mr. President, he is more than that. Lou 
Stokes is a good man. One of my own favorite memories of Lou Stokes, 
and frankly it is one of my memories that I will carry with me all my 
life and my career in politics, was the very moving speech that 
Congressman Lou Stokes made when he and I served together on the Iran-
Contra Committee. Mr. President, this was a contentious time. 
Congressman Stokes and I did not always agree on everything about these 
hearings or about the facts of that series of events that led to the 
Iran-Contra hearings. But there was a moment during the hearings when 
Lou Stokes spoke from the heart and he really let us know what kind of 
a person he is, sort of what makes him tick. We really had an insight 
into the soul of this very good man.
  In his remarks he expressed heartfelt love of this great country of 
ours. Let me quote a portion of what Congressman Lou Stokes said at 
that time:

       I wore the uniform of this country in World War II in a 
     segregated Army. I wore it as proudly as you did, even though 
     our Government required black and white solders in the same 
     Army to live, sleep, eat, and travel separate and apart while 
     fighting and dying for our country.
       But because of the rule of law today's servicemen in 
     America suffer no such indignity. . . . My mother, a widow, 
     raised two boys. She had an eighth grade education. She was a 
     domestic worker who scrubbed floors. One son became the first 
     black mayor of a major American city. The other sits here 
     today as chairman of a House Intelligence Committee. Only in 
     America, only in America, Colonel North, only in America.

  Mr. President, Louis Stokes said these words at a time of great 
tension in our country and in the Congress. In doing so, he gave voice 
to what Abraham Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.
  That, Mr. President, is really who Louis Stokes is, a truly honorable 
man who represents the finest aspects of the American spirit. 
Congressman Stokes rose from poverty to become a great American 
statesman. He was Ohio's first African American member of the U.S. 
Congress. He was the first African American ever named to the House 
Appropriations Committee.
  First, first, first, again and again and again, Mr. President. Where 
a path had not been carved out before, Louis Stokes took the lead and 
blazed a trail by himself. He was chairman of the Congressional Black 
Caucus, he was chairman of the House Ethics Committee, he was chairman 
of the House Intelligence Committee, he was chairman of the historic 
House committee that investigated the assassinations of President 
Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was chairman and is 
currently ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee on VA-HUD 
overseeing $87 billion of our Federal budget.
  For the last 5 years he has been the dean of our State's 
congressional delegation.
  Mr. President, I am proud to have served for so long with this truly 
great American, here in the Senate for the last 3 years, as well as the 
8 years we served together in the U.S. House of Representatives. So 
today, Mr. President, I join the people of Ohio in thanking Congressman 
Lou Stokes for all he has done to move our State and our country 
forward.
  Louis Stokes's hometown newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, says 
that he is ``A man who, through word and deed, created a legacy of 
exemplary public service. . . . After his long years of distinguished 
service, Congress won't be the same without him.''
  Mr. President, how true that is.
  So to our friend, Lou Stokes; his wife, Jay; his children, Shelley, 
Angela, Louis, Lorene; and his grandchildren, who I know he cherishes 
so much, Brett, Eric, Grant, Kelley, Kimberley, Alexandra, and 
Nicolette, thank you very much. Thank you for sharing him with us. We 
wish you, Congressman Stokes, and your children and your grandchildren 
and the rest of

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your family all the best for a wonderful future.

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