Stokes, Carl Burton (1927-1996), served as mayor of Cleveland from 1967 to 1971. Stokes was the first African American to be elected to head a major American city.
Stokes was born in Cleveland on June 21, 1927. His family was poor, and Stokes left high school at age 17 to go to work. He served in the Army from 1944 to 1946. After leaving the Army, he finished high school and worked his way through college. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and from Cleveland-Marshall Law School (now Cleveland State University College of Law). He began practicing law in Cleveland in 1957.
Stokes served as an assistant city prosecutor in Cleveland from 1958 to 1962. In 1962, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. He was reelected twice. In 1965, he ran for mayor of Cleveland as an independent, but lost. In 1967, he ran as a Democrat and won. He was reelected in 1969. From 1972 to 1980, Stokes worked as a TV newscaster in New York City. From 1983 to 1994, Stokes served as a judge on the Cleveland Municipal Court. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Seychelles from 1994 to 1996. Stokes died on April 3, 1996.
Stokes’s brother, Louis, became the first African American to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. Louis Stokes served in the House from 1969 to 1999.
