[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 140 (Monday, September 28, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF REP. LOUIS STOKES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 28, 2015

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, tonight, it is an honor to stand before you 
all and celebrate the life of my good friend, Congressman Lou Stokes.
  Lou was a highly honored member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He was 
a decorated veteran who served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He 
was one of the original founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, and 
later its chair from 1972-1974.
  We will miss him here in Congress and across the country--he gave us 
all so much.
  Lou lived his life with an unrelenting optimism--he knew his country 
could be a better place, and he never ceased to join in that struggle. 
He shared that quality that so many great men and women possess: a 
fierce, unrelenting, desire to bring about change.
  In 1967, Lou followed that conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, 
where he argued for the petitioner in Terry v. Ohio, which established 
the standards under which a police officer may stop a citizen.
  Less than a year later, he became the first African-American in Ohio 
elected to the United States House of Representatives. On Jan. 3, 1969 
he took his seat in the House, just a year and three days after his 
brother--Carl Stokes--was elected Mayor of Cleveland and the first 
African-American mayor of a major city.
  He was a distinguished member of this body, serving on the 
Appropriations Committee for many years. He also served as Chairman of 
the House Select Committee on Assassinations, investigating the 
assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Rev. Martin Luther 
King, Jr., and as Chairman of the Committee on Standards of Official 
Conduct, now the House Ethics Committee.
  If there was one thing you knew about Lou, it was that you could find 
him fighting for what is right no matter how difficult the challenge or 
ominous the odds. It was--quite simply--an honor to call him my friend 
and my colleague. To have fought with him for 30 years has given my own 
time in this body a special meaning.
  I have passed along my condolences to his family--his wife Jay, his 
daughters Shelly, Angela, and Lori, and his son Chuck Stokes, an 
Editorial Director with Detroit's WXYZ News. I thank them for sharing 
Lou with those who loved him and a country that needed him.
  Congressman Louis Stokes left behind a record of accomplishment that 
will continue to benefit the people of Cleveland, the American public, 
and this body for many years.

                          ____________________