Former Ohio Congressman Louis Stokes dies at age 90

He built a career centered around assuring all Americans’ civil rights despite their differences.

He died peacefully with his wife, Jay, at his side, a month after he announced he had brain and lung cancer, his family said in a statement.

He was elected in 1968 to the U.S. House, quickly earning widespread respect and influence.

Congressman Stokes spent 14 years as a lawyer before entering Congress where he spent thirty years before his retirement.

Recalling the example Stokes set, the U.S. attorney in Cleveland said Wednesday that he once had Stokes address his region’s prosecutors. Stokes concluded there “probably” had been a conspiracy in both cases.

Many current legislators, like Sherrod Brown, described Stokes as a valuable mentor.

“During his health problem, he presented it since he did life span overvallen by having nerve and potential”, your family said.

“He loved Cleveland, and he loved the political process”.

“He was the one who really was so good at what he did that he encouraged the State of Ohio to make the change before he had to sue them, because they had already lost in the Supreme Court”, Fudge said.

Stokes served in the Army from 1943 to 1946 in a segregated unit where he said he experienced racism for the first time in his life.

When Ryan was appointed to that committee, Stokes made contact with the young congressman.

“Today I join with present and past Appropriators in mourning the loss of Louis B. Stokes“. In a statement, CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield called Stokes the “embodiment of a public servant”.

He celebrated his 90th birthday in February. Rob Portman.

Louis Stokes served 15 consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives serving the people of Cleveland, Ohio.

When North said he had acted out of patriotism, Stokes replied, “Others, too, love America just as much as you do”.

Stokes was the first African-American member of Congress from the state of Ohio.

In the House, Stokes was recognized as one of the chamber’s most forceful advocates for funding of public housing for the poor, once remarking that if not for such government assistance he and his brother would be “either in jail or dead”.