BLACK VICTORY: Carl Stokes and the Winning of Cleveland

The black mayor of Cleveland appears here as a palatable, agile politician who won election in 1967 with the backing of the ghetto voters, business leaders, a smattering of ADAers, millionaire Cyrus Eaton, and the congratulations of the Vice- President of the United States. Stokes' ""I believe in Cleveland"" speech and his assertion that his victory was a realization of the American Dream have contributed to making him everybody's favorite black Democrat. But Stokes began his career in fits and starts, and author Weinberg does an able job of showing how Stokes successfully figured political odds, courted the party bosses and the voters, and generally wriggled his way into the state legislature and into his post as mayor. Weinberg is no professional historian but he is an adequate observer of the Cleveland political scene. He offers a thin, perhaps overly positive, but readable biography of Stokes' career, emphasizing the campaign struggles. In a short final chapter he points out the achievements of the mayor's one year in office. In 1969, there is another mayoral election. But by then it is likely Stokes will have made it to the Federal leagues.