CLEVELAND, Ohio — I made my sister and brother-in-law join me Monday at City Hall for the “Carl B. Stokes Day Celebration,” a salute to a man who became the first Black politician to wield real power here.
Not a single politician should have skipped such an event. Most did, though. I saw few members of Cleveland City Council there; I didn’t see one state legislator; nor did I see anybody from Congress.
Maybe that’s a snub of Mayor Justin Bibb, who seemed to have been the voice behind this remembrance. Scores filled the rotunda inside City Hall … people on Bibb’s staff, community leaders and a handful of media members…