Carl B. Stokes, who overcame an impoverished childhood to become the first black elected mayor of a major U.S. city, died early Wednesday. He was 68.
Stokes, who had suffered from cancer, died at Cleveland Clinic shortly after 5 a.m., said clinic spokeswoman Holli Birrer.Stokes, who had been ambassador to the Seychelles Islands since 1994, took a medical leave of absence in June 1995 after he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.
In 1962, he became the first black Democrat elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. A black
Republican had been elected to the
Legislature in 1880.
Stokes - the brother of U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, a 14-term congressman from Cleveland's east side - first ran for mayor as an independent in 1965, losing to Democratic incumbent Ralph Locher. Two years later, he defeated Locher in the Democratic primary.
The great-grandson of a slave, Stokes defeated Republican Seth Taft, the grandson of a president, to become Cleveland's mayor in November 1967. Cleveland, which now has a majority black population, was 37 percent black when Stokes narrowly defeated Taft.
He won a second term in 1969, again getting 50.5 percent, this time in a three-way race. His main opponent was Republican (and future mayor) Ralph Perk.
Stokes did not run for a third term.
In his autobiography "Promises of Power," Stokes said his early attempts as mayor to build a community consensus were severely dam-aged the night of July 23, 1968, when a shootout occurred in the city's Glenville neighborhood between a group of black men and Cleveland police. Six black civilians and three white police officers were killed.
"The aftermath of that night was to haunt and color every aspect of my administration the next three years," Stokes wrote in his book. "Glenville killed much of my public support and gave nonsup-port-ers a chance to emerge from the woodwork."
His second term was marked by attempts to expand public housing and shake up the police department.
In 1972 he became a news anchorman for WNBC-TV in New York City, a job he held for eight years.
He returned to Cleveland in 1980 and was elected a Cleveland Municipal Court judge in 1983. President Clinton appointed him two years ago as ambassador to the Seychelles.