The Gentleman from Ohio
Louis Stokes
with David Chanoff
Trillium Books
The Ohio State University Press
Pre-Orders: Now
Available at Amazon & Book Stores Everywhere
Legacy of U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes Honored in new Autobiography
The Gentleman from Ohio Chronicles Beloved African American Political and Civil Rights Pioneer
(Cleveland, Ohio - August 11, 2016) – In a book finished just weeks before his death last August, legendary United States Congressman Louis Stokes shares
his inspiring life story – from a boyhood in Cleveland’s projects to a
career as one of the most powerful and respected men on Capitol Hill.
The Gentleman from Ohio
(with David Chanoff; The Ohio University Press, September 2016;
Foreword by U.S. Congressman John Lewis) chronicles the life and career
of one of our nation’s most revered and accomplished leaders.
“It
is not too much to say that Louis Stokes and his brother Carl helped
lead the way in establishing a place for African Americans in the world
of mainstream American politics. In doing that they helped rearrange
our country’s political landscape. It was a historic achievement.” ─U.S. Congressman John Lewis
“Shortly
before his death in 2015, Louis Stokes finished his autobiography, The
Gentleman from Ohio. With this book, he bestows his last gift to the
American public with this remarkable chronicle of his rise from poverty
in Cleveland to the halls of power in Washington, DC, as the first black
congressman from Ohio.” —Henry Louis Gates Jr.
“Full of humor, graciousness, anger, and glowing optimism, The Gentleman from Ohio is an essential read.” —Vernon Jordan
About Louis Stokes
Louis
Stokes was a giant in Ohio politics and one of the most significant
figures in the U.S. Congress in recent times. When he arrived in the
House of Representatives as a freshman in 1969, there were only six
African Americans serving. By the time he retired thirty years later, he
chaired the House Special Committee on the Kennedy and King
assassinations, the House Ethics Committee during Abscam, and the House
Intelligence Committee during Iran-Contra; he was also a senior member
of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The health care
legislation he sponsored changed the way the health establishment
treated women, minorities, and those who most needed help.
Prior
to Louis Stokes’s tenure in Congress he served for many years as a
criminal defense lawyer and chairman of the Cleveland NAACP Legal
Redress Committee. Among the Supreme Court Cases he argued, the Terry
“Stop and Frisk” case is regarded as one of the twenty-five most
significant cases in the court’s history. The Gentleman from Ohio
chronicles this and other momentous events in the life and legacy of
Ohio’s first black representative—a man who, whether in law or politics,
continually fought for the principles he believed in and helped lead
the way for African Americans in the world of mainstream American
politics.
Louis
Stokes was raised in Cleveland’s projects, the son of a single mother
who lost her husband when Louis was three. He was also the brother of
Carl Stokes, who, before being elected as Cleveland’s first African
American mayor, was elected as the first African American Democrat in
the state legislature. Louis Stokes died at the age of ninety very
shortly after finishing this autobiography.
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