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BLACK POLITICAL ACTION IN '72

STOKES

number of different Black persons for favorite sons and other varieties of committing presidential delegates or a combination of them all. The specific rationale for the several available strategies will be spelled out at our political workshops by our several distinguished Black political leaders.

But in keynoting the specific discussions that are to follow permit me to say: we cannot do it alone! We have to effect the coalition of interest with other similarly oppressed and denied people: the young, the elderly, the Chicano, the Puerto Rican and the Appalachians.

With the help of white, brown and black voters I was elected in 1962 as the only Black Democrat ever to be elected to the Ohio legislature in the 170 years of our being a state. In fact, no other black Democrat has since been elected on a county-wide basis. In 1967 I was elected as America's first Black Mayor of a major city and re-elected in 1969. Cleveland was a predominantly white city in 1967 and it is still 62 percent white now.

We have developed a strong political organization, the 21st Congressional District Caucus, which was earned the total support and trust of the Black community and has developed an effective coalition with poor and moderate income and liberal whites, Indians, Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speaking people.

When the time came, early in 1970, for a reorganization of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, including the election of new officers, the Black Democrats of Cleveland were ignored in the backroom decisions with regard to the slate to be presented to the county party's convention. Instead of recognizing the loyalty and consistency of Black Democrats who had concerned whites, succeeded in electing me Mayor of the central city in 1967; my bother, Louis Stokes, as the first Black Congressman in the history of Ohio in 1968; and my being re-elected by twice my previous winning margin in 1969 on the Democratic ticket, the party's self-appointed decisionmakers did not consult me, my brother, or any respected Black Democrat. Instead our community was offered a specially created "Negro Vice-Chairmanship."

Then and there we decided we had had enough of this plantation-style politics, and we formed the 21st Congressional District Caucus with my brother as its chairman. The caucus endorsed Louis Stokes for re-election to Congress in 1970 and made other endorsements for the State Legislature, for City Council, for judicial posts and for County Commissioner on the basis of the candidates' qualifications and willingness to address themselves to the needs of the 21st District

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