Jack Thurston

The confirmation of Barack Obama as the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for the 2008 presidential election is a historic moment in the history of black America. Previously I’ve posted audio recordings of Bobby Kennedy’s campaign in 1968 and Spiro Agnew’s vice-presidency. Now seems like a good time to turn to the record collection to remember the first black man to have run a major US city or to have been seriously considered for a presidential ticket: Carl B. Stokes.

According to his Wikipedia entry:

Elected the first black Democrat to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962, he served 3 terms and narrowly lost a bid for mayor of Cleveland in 1965. His victory two years later drew national attention, as he was the first African-American mayor of a large American city. Able to mobilize both black and white voters, he defeated Seth Taft, the grandson of a former U.S. president, with a 50.5 majority.

By all accounts, Stokes was a remarkable man, as an LP I bought about a decade ago also suggests. It’s entitled “The Mayor and the People” and was released on the legendary jazz label Flying Dutchman. The first side contains an orchestral ‘Black Suite’ composed by Oliver Nelson with poetry readings by Stokes. The second side contains a recording of a press conference given by Stokes, where he handles questions (some fairly confrontational) with a wit, directness and - sometimes - abrasion - that one rarely sees these days. I suppose it reflects the febrile atmosphere of the times, with the Vietnam War raging, the Ku Klux Klan burning and lynching and the Black Panthers calling for armed insurrection. It may also reflect a frankness among politicians that has disappeared in this age when they’re all groomed to stay ‘on message’ and every public event is carefully stage-managed.

At one point Stokes is asked whether he’d ever run for President, and his reply is that being Mayor of Cleveland is a challenge enough for him and that he wouldn’t want to be distracted by the chance of climbing the greasy pole any higher, for to do so would inevitably risk compromising the work he still had to do in City Hall. Admirable or lacking in ambition, who’s to judge?

Worth a listen.

Side one:

[audio:mayor_and_the_people_side1.mp3]

Side two:

[audio:mayor_and_the_people_side2.mp3]

More information at the Western Reserve Historical Society.