COLUMBUS (AP) – A 15-term Ohio congressman who took on tough assignments looking into assassinations and scandals has died. Former Congressman Louis Stokes was 90.
His death was confirmed by a family statement, and comes a month after he announced he had brain and lung cancer.
Stokes was elected in 1968 and became Ohio’s first black member of Congress and one of its most respected and influential.
Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who served in Congress, remembered Stokes as a friend in a statement issued by his office this morning:
“He was a giant, who led by his conviction as much as he did by his personal grace. I am proud to have served in Congress with him. Cleveland, Ohio and America are stronger for his service and I hope reflecting on that can inspire future leaders at a time when we need to come together more as a country,” Kasich said.
“Lou Stokes always did the right thing and spent his life fighting for Ohioans. I’ve been proud to call him a friend and a mentor, whose counsel I relied on for 30 years,” said Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
The Democrat headed a House committee that investigated the slayings of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the late 1970s. Stokes concluded there “probably” had been a conspiracy in both cases.
He also served on the Iran-Contra investigative committee, drawing attention with his unflinching interrogation of Lt. Col. Oliver North.