90-year-old former Ohio Democratic Congressman Louis Strokes has been diagnosed with brain and lung cancer. Kevin Niedermier of member station WKSU in Kent has more on one of Ohio's leading African-American political figures.
Stokes became Ohio’s first black congressman in 19-68 and served 15-terms. Reverend Hilton Smith is president of Cleveland’s NAACP chapter. He calls Stokes an international icon and a longtime friend…..
Hilton Smith
“I worked on his first campaign for congress. He’s been a friend and mentor to me for all these years. He was really one of the first persons to ask me to consider running for the presidency of the NAACP. And he was right there with me the entire time and he’s been with me the entire time I’ve been with this chapter.”
Smith says Stokes will devote the same high energy to fighting his cancer that he’s devoted to serving the public. The 90-year old Stokes is being treated at the Cleveland Clinic. He grew up in a Cleveland public housing development and later earned a law degree. His late brother Carl became the nation’s first black major city mayor when Clevelanders elected him in 19-67