Song for My Father is a daughter’s memoir of her father, Charles M. Stokes, a prominent African-American member of the National Republican Party. Known as Stokey, he was born just forty years after the abolition of slavery. But by the time he became a pioneer in the fields of law, legislation, and politics – during the turbulent and transformative 1960s and 70s – contemporary associations of the GOP with the party of Lincoln had faded. Stokes’s choice to remain a Republican against the tide of black Democratic political loyalty took courage. He would live to become Seattle’s first black state legislator and serve as Washington State’s first African-American district court judge.

With Song for My Father, Ms. Stokes pays tribute to a man whose love for his country, his family, and his people made a world of difference for generations to come. Stokes’s life is a compelling example of what American Dreams are made of.