Cuyahoga Community CollegeLori Stokes Headlines Tri-C Scholarship Luncheon
Award-winning journalist and daughter of Congressman Louis Stokes to speak May 13
Award-winning journalist Lori Stokes will serve as keynote speaker at a May scholarship luncheon benefiting minority students at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®).
Her presentation will be part of the annual Frances M. Franklin Scholarship and Protégé Luncheon, which will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Tri-C’s Corporate College® East in Warrensville Heights.
The event, which is sponsored by Tri-C’s Black American Council, celebrates academic success by Tri-C students. Nearly $50,000 in scholarships will be awarded.
The visit by Stokes coincides with a yearlong commemoration marking the 50th anniversary of Carl Stokes’ historic election as mayor of Cleveland. Voters made her uncle the first African-American mayor of a major U.S. city in 1967.
A year later, her father, Louis Stokes, became Ohio’s first African-American congressman.
Lori Stokes serves as anchor of New York’s WABC Eyewitness News This Morning and Eyewitness News at Noon. She has received many honors throughout her career, particularly for her reporting on social issues.
Like her father and uncle, Lori Stokes also broke racial barriers. She became the first African-American to broadcast on MSNBC in 1996.
Her talk will focus on the theme of this year’s luncheon: “Believe in Yourself.”
The luncheon – now in its 27th year – honors Frances Mason Franklin, an English professor at the College from 1969 to 1983 who mentored countless students and faculty. Proceeds support the Frances M. Franklin Scholarship Fund of the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation.
The event is the main fundraiser for the Black American Council, which grew from a group founded in 1969 to support and encourage minority students at Tri-C.
Tickets to the luncheon start at $50 and can be purchased at www.tri-c.edu/FrancesMFranklin or by calling the Foundation at 216-987-4868.
For more information on the Stokes commemoration, visit www.stokes50cle.com.
April 14, 2017
John Horton, 216-987-4281 john.horton@tri-c.edu