On November 7, 1961, the citizens of Cleveland, Ohio elected Carl B. Stokes as the first black mayor of a major U.S. city.

Stokes was born in 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio into a poor black family. He worked his way out of poverty through education. He earned his B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1954 and law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1956.

Stokes began his legal career as a prosecutor in Cleveland and later formed Stokes and Stokes law firm. Within a year of starting his firm, Stokes ran for and was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962. In 1965, Stokes ran for the mayor of Cleveland and narrowly lost.

In 1967, Stokes ran again for mayor against Seth Taft, the grandson of President William Taft. Stokes centered his mayoral campaign on political issues rather than race. On this day, November 7, 1967, Stokes narrowly beat Seth Taft to become Cleveland’s 51st mayor and the first black mayor of a major U.S. city. Stokes won 20% of the white vote and 96% of the black vote.

As mayor of Cleveland, Stokes inherited a city that was extremely racially diverse, with over 99% of black Clevelanders living on the east side of the Cuyahoga River, and most of white Clevelanders living on the west side of the Cuyahoga River. Stokes attempted to reduce the racial polarization. He also increased the city's income tax, created the "Cleveland Now!" program to help local communities, and worked to reduce crime by hiring more police to monitor the streets. Stokes served two terms but did not seek a third term.

In 1972, Stokes became the first black anchorman on New York City’s WNBC, NBC's main station. He worked as an anchorman with WNBC for eight years as the urban affairs editor and a foreign correspondent to Africa. Stokes returned to Cleveland and became the first black lawyer to serve as a general counsel to a major American labor union, the United Auto Workers. Later, he was elected as a judge in Cleveland's Municipal Court.

Overall, Stokes served in all three branches of government – legislative, executive and judicial – and paved the way for black candidates nationwide.

In 1994, Stokes was nominated by President Clinton as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles, a range of islands in the Indian Ocean near Africa.

Stokes died in Cleveland in April 1996.