Students Celebrate the Life of Louis Stokes

Onondaga Community College's celebration of Black History Month included a day set aside to remember the person whom an opportunity program is named after.

Friday, February 23rd was reserved for a celebration of Louis Stokes, and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. L-SAMP, as it's commonly referred to, is a fellowship program funded by the National Science Foundation. Its goal is to diversify the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM fields.

In honor of Stokes and the L-SAMP program, the college hosted STEM-related activities in the lobby of Coulter Hall including magnetic stick building, line art, and tetrahedron building.

Louis Stokes was born on February 23, 1925. He grew up in an impoverished section of Cleveland, served in the United States Army, earned his law degree, and became the most prominent Civil Rights attorney in Cleveland. In 1968 he became the first Black Congressman in the history of Ohio and was co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus. He held office for 30 years, retiring in 1999. Congress approved the creation of L-SAMP while Stokes was still in office.

Black History Month events will continue tomorrow with the campus-wide Unity Day. Events will be held in the Gordon Student Center and Mawhinney Hall from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.