Cleveland journalist Mike Roberts thinks that Carl Stokes was the perfect candidate to run for mayor. But not the perfect candidate to be mayor.
Mike Roberts: Almost from the time as the election day receded, it became clear that everybody's expectations would not be met. And the reason was everybody's expectations were so high and so overblown, no man, no single person, could deliver it.
Stokes biographer Leonard Moore agrees.
Leonard Moore: People aren't understanding how urban politics works. Although he is mayor and he can control some things, there's a city council that has to support those measures and a corporate community that has to support those measures, as well.
And Carl Stokes had that support, at first. Soon after he got into office Stokes successfully brought more African Americans into public service positions in city government. In 1968, he got national praise for walking the streets on the night that Martin Luther King was assassinated, helping keep the peace in an angry community. And then he launched an ambitious $1.5 billion urban development program called "Cleveland: Now!"
Arnold Pinkney: I think the first year that Stokes was in office, he kept every promise that he made as a candidate running for mayor, against overwhelming opposition.
Campaign adviser Arnold Pinkney pauses, as he recalls what happened next.
Arnold Pinkney: The Glenville riots.
In July of 1968, a black nationalist group based in the Glenville neighborhood surreptitiously used Cleveland: Now! funds to purchase weapons. A resulting shootout with the police lead to the deaths of seven people and an outbreak of looting.
Arnold Pinkney: It was the Glenville Riots that really hurt Carl Stokes. And primarily because the police never forgave him for that.
And the business community started withdrawing their support after the Cleveland: Now! funds debacle. Mike Roberts says he watched the once energetic and enthusiastic mayor slowly sink into bitterness.
Mike Roberts: Carl had thin skin. Carl was an emotional guy. His expectation was that, once he won, that the city would be at his beck and call. That wasn't going to happen.
Despite his disillusionment, Stokes served a second term as mayor before heading to New York for a TV news job. It would be sixteen years before another African American -- Michael White -- would lead the city. Today, forty years after that momentous Stokes victory, black mayors are commonplace in America. But some worry about the state of black leadership in Cleveland.
Former Stokes campaign adviser Arnold Pinkney wonders where the new black leaders will come from.
Arnold Pinkney: The African Americans of this generation are better educated and better trained than in my generation. The question is: are they prepared to make the commitment and the sacrifice to get involved in public service and public life?
Stokes biographer Leonard Moore thinks it's the leaders of the older generation who are the problem.
Leonard Moore: You've had the same cadre of black leadership in Cleveland for the last 40 years and that is an embarrassment. And you wonder why there is a brain drain of young black professionals from Cleveland? They don't see any kind of space where they can operate in this city.
Mike Roberts says the flight of people out of the city and the invasion of drugs has totally changed the nature of politics from the days of Carl Stokes. He thinks movement toward regional government has the potential of dramatically altering the local leadership pool.
Mike Roberts: But, you know what? I'm not pessimistic about that. What the town needs is… we need some leaders, be they black or white. We need somebody to step forward and move on.
David C. Barnett, 90.3.