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| Title | Judge Charles M. Stokes, Seattle, ca. 1973 |
| Photographer | Allen Studios |
| Date | ca. 1973 |
| Caption | Born and educated in Kansas, Charles Moorehead Stokes began his law career in general practice and then worked for the state of Kansas. He moved to Seattle in the 1940s, where he became the first African American in the 20th century to be elected to the Washington State House of Representatives, representing the 37th District. He served three terms, from 1951 to 1955 and again from 1957 to 1959. He was named the outstanding freshman King County Republican House member, and was applauded for speaking about the willingness of African Americans to fight in the Korean War despite antiwar sentiment among some prominent blacks. He was active in Republican party politics and was the first African American to serve as vice chair of the Young Republican National Convention. He also served as president of the Seattle chapter of the NAACP. In 1968, he became the first African American appointed as a judge for the King County District Court, where he served until his retirement in 1978. He continued in private practice until 1993. He and his wife Josephine had two children, Andre and Stephanie. Judge Stokes died on November 25, 1996. |
| Notes | Embossed on image: Allen Studios.
Caption information source: HistoryLink.org. |
| Subjects | Judges--Washington (State)--Seattle
African Americans--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Personal Names | Stokes, Charles M. |
| Location | United States--Washington (State)--Seattle |
| Digital Collection | Black Heritage Society Collection |
| Image Number | 1997.01.2.13 |
| Ordering Information | To order a reproduction or inquire about permissions, contact: TheBoard@blackheritagewa.org. Please cite the Image Number. |
| Repository | The Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Inc. |
| Physical Description | 1 photographic print: b&w; 8 x 10 in. |
| Type | Image |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned as a 3000 pixel TIFF image in 8-bit grayscale, resized to 600 pixels in the longest dimension and compressed into JPEG format using Photoshop 6.0 and its JPEG quality measurement 3. |
