He grew up a street fighter in the Outhwaite Homes, one of Cleveland’s first public housing projects, and became a Golden Gloves boxer, bearing a scar on his forehead from a 1943 match.
Stokes also boxed during his time in Europe in the Army, and after his return stateside, he won a state collegiate boxing championship while a student in West Virginia
When a meeting of Black athletes and political figures was convened in Cleveland in 1967 about heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali’s refusal to report for military service — the famed “Ali Summit” — Stokes was there. Five months later, he would win the election to become the first Black mayor of a major city in America.
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Stokes saw the value of boxing as a tool for physical fitness, as well as keeping young boys off the street. He appointed Wilfred “Whiz Bang” Carter, a former boxer who had trained him, to the boxing and wrestling commission with the idea of making Cleveland a prominent destination for prizefights.
And on Jan. 20, 1969, while he was watching Golden Gloves training at Lakeview Terrace — another local public housing project in Ohio City — he had no qualms lacing up some gloves himself. His sparring opponent was Ernesto Negron, a featherweight — a weight class at which Stokes himself had fought. Still in his shirt and tie, Stokes’ footwork kept his opponent off-balance.
Two months later, Stokes watched the Golden Gloves finals.
Negron had lost in the preliminaries, but the big success story from the event was a heavyweight from Youngstown named Earnie Shavers, who would go on to a successful pro career and who showed as a young Golden Glover that he possessed punching power.
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